As news of state-based surveillance programs are filling our airwaves and are the focus of countless new stories around the world, it seems the lessons of the past are being ignored. The American humorist Mark Twain once observed, “History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” This is a good and well-made point. We often don’t see the parallels in history. We like to think our modern times are so unique. But in this case, in the expansion of the surveillance state, the rhyming seems rather obvious. The Guardian ran a very interesting story about this.
“Every week, we hear more bad news about the danger to democracy brought by uncontrollable secret services spying on millions of citizens. And every week, more people realise how grave this cyber-attack on civil rights is.
The debate triggered by the recent NSA and GCHQ spy scandal forces governments to take a stand – in one way or another. How they act will be judged by us – the citizens of each nation in Europe and the rest of the world. The UK government is currently testing its limits with its outrageous assault against the Guardian, after disclosure of its shameful “I spy for you, you spy for me” policy. The British government turned against its people, against core democratic values and everybody could see it. But the German government is so far also failing to take a clear stand.”
Read the full story here.
Shadows In The Night and Fog 