Schizophrenic America

Generally speaking, American mistrust of government runs deep. In the most recent national election, it was largely the Republicans who were able to exploit that mistrust, taking control of both houses of Congress. But just last week, America’s schizophrenia — especially the GOP’s — resurfaced with the Republicans decidedly refusing to go along with increasing Senate restrictions on unfettered National Security Agency snooping in, among other areas, the collection of telephone data. The reason for snooping was, of course, “national security.” In the meantime, the whole world has learned through countless Hollywood films that this pretext grants U.S. security agencies nearly carte blanche in everything.

Previously, Professor David Price, cited in a special edition of “Le Monde Diplomatique,” said on the subject of surveillance that telephone tapping, even if directed at criminal suspects, is totally un-American. That’s how deeply government mistrust in the United States ran historically until Sept. 11, 2001, when it dramatically changed. Price is credited with the article’s conclusion that, “Since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, America has succumbed to a form of historical amnesia fed by a culture of fear, militarization and precarity. Relegated to the dustbin of organized forgetting were the long-standing abuses carried out by America’s intelligence agencies and the public’s long-standing distrust of the FBI, government wiretaps and police actions that threatened privacy rights, civil liberties and those freedoms fundamental to a democracy.”

The “Le Monde Diplomatique” article is among the best in this edition where out of 33 articles dealing with spying, fully one-third are critical of U.S. surveillance practices. Not a single article, however, is critical of Russia, where the cult of spying has the entire nation by the throat, nor of France, where covert actions aren’t exactly kid stuff, either.

Two articles are a paean to whistleblower Edward Snowden, who exposed the extent of global NSA spying. That’s fine, but when will a Russian or a Chinese or a German Edward Snowden emerge? Precisely because of the Snowden case we learn that the American system at least contains some internal corrective mechanisms.

The June 2014 edition of the Berlin journal “International Politics” is dedicated to examining the subject of espionage. Four articles deal with the role of security in an increasingly complex world. Peter Neumann of King’s College London makes a very interesting observation in this regard: “States without over-powerful secret services generally function much better — as do the secret services they deploy. Germany’s recent history demonstrates that secret services that think they know everything understand nothing.”

Another article examines how intelligence agencies are increasingly using social networks to track social trends and public opinion. But that’s not enough to provide an overall picture of a society. In order to form a definitive picture, intelligence agencies must have knowledge of both the buzz on the street and what’s being discussed at the highest levels by the decision makers.