Monday, June 24, 2013

On the Rise of the Anti-State Cyber Warrior

Butler Shaffer writes on what must be viewed as the rise of the Anti-State Cyber-Warrior.
What amuses me the most in the current Snowden episode, is that the American government, with all of its supposed intelligence-gathering capacities - the revelations of which are at the core of the case against Snowden - cannot locate this man's presence. "All the king's horses, and all the king's men" - even with access to all communications of all Americans - can no more find him than could they anticipate the collapse of the Soviet Union or the attacks of 9/11. The entire affair - along with the actions of Bradley Manning, Julian Assange, and other whistleblowers - helps answer the pessimists who ask "but what can one person do?"

Snowden's actions are confirming the consequences of living in a free society: individuals, pursuing their self-interests, are better able to focus their intelligence on matters of direct concern to their lives, than are those who busy themselves with gathering trillions upon trillions of pieces of information, deluding themselves that such powers provide them with some imaginary sense of collective intelligence with which to rule the world. To those who pay attention, Snowden is demonstrating how decentralized decision-making - in a society that respects individual liberty, private ownership of property, and free-markets - is far more productive of human well-being than is collective subservience to authority.

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