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We are all prisoners on home supervision
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by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News
July 25, 2006
When I was working with incarcerated juveniles I became familiar with
"home supervision," as a minimal form of incarceration. The
"wards" (i.e. prisoners) are outfitted with an ankle bracelet
and base station that is programmed to call in by modem if the minor
strays a certain distance from the base station.
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Wards who leave their homes or apartments are electronically reported, causing violators to forfeit the privilege of home detention and
instead find themselves incarcerated in a more traditional lock and
key arrangement, sans the comforts of home.
With the insidious
expansion of what is being euphemistically called "data
mining" directed at unknowing citizens, combined with immense
computing power, we are essentially in the situation of formal home
detention. This "data mining" allows our "government" (or should I
say prison administration) to keep tabs on us as effectively as with
an ankle bracelet. It's more effective than home supervision, really, when you consider that a
prisoner who thinks she is not being watched is more likely to
violate a rule — demonstrate her need for more close supervision — than if she were on
her guard.
Not only that, but unannounced surveillance — which we are all under
now whether we like it or not — allows for more intense covert
supervision of known associate prisoners, as indicated by the
program. All this humming along without any living human
intervention and awareness - baring sentinel events.
Our prison takes on the contours of the globe. The obvious
interconnection of the intelligence services of so many countries,
often without the knowledge or any democratic approval of the people
(witness the consternation in Italy now, around
their secret services' cooperation with the CIA), means we have effectively
been committed to a world-wide prison. For all practical purposes
there is no place left to hide as long as we interact with the world
digitally — use cell phones, credit and debit cards, e-mail, spend
time in public places such as malls and educational institutions
under video surveillance.
Computers can follow us in real time as we move around, even if we are not acting in any suspicious way.
Actually acting suspicious, like trying to evade
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Dr. Herb Ruhs & grandson
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With the insidious expansion of what is being euphemisti-
cally called "data mining" directed at unknowing citizens, combined with immense computing power, we are essentially in the situation of formal home detention.
This "data mining" allows our "government" (or should I say prison administration) to keep tabs on us as effectively as with an ankle bracelet.
It's more effective than home supervision, really, when you consider that a prisoner who thinks she is not being watched is more likely to violate a rule — demonstrate her need for more close supervision — than if she were on
her guard.
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There's much more than this at Unknown News.
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observation, order
the wrong book from Amazon, call the subscription department of a
left journal, or contact someone already on a list, would merely
alert the program to raise the level of sampling of our behavior by
whatever means seemed appropriate to the programmers.
The key
understanding here is that computer power alone lowers the threshold
of affordable supervision, so that every single citizen in a modern
society can be subjected to a level of supervision on some gross
parameters, such as general geographical location. Aberrations
automatically detected at this lowest level can be programmed to
trigger closer scrutiny, and so forth. Combined with no-knock
searches, suspension of habeas corpus and secret abduction and
incarceration, as is demonstrably being practiced in the US, these are the
ingredients of a near perfect police state.
Sorry if this idea is upsetting. It has me somewhat upset too. I
only bring it up because we need to be aware of it, to know the
nature of the resistance that we need to show.
For instance, no-one
should think that secrecy will protect them. Trying to pull a fast
one with this crowd is more likely to result in people around you
suffering needlessly than in any useful result.
Also, it makes clear
why resistance will need to be leaderless, and be based instead
on loose networks of communities in dialog and mutual support, where
ideas for creative resistance float around freely, and can be
associated with no obvious source that is subject to control.
Please, no heroes need apply. Any semblance of rank will be a
weakness. What's needed instead is just many peers, intermittently aggregating and
disassembling in as random a pattern as possible and in as fun a
manner as possible — ideally.
If we can come to understand the system of incarceration that we are
being subjected to, we will become aware of any practical options of
free action. We will also be able to act from a position of freedom
of mind. This is a minimal requirement. The mere existence of free
minds having fun is like kryptonite for the ghouls that imprison us.
Party on.
© by the author.
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