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Eric Snowden taks about a Donald Trump presidency and mass surveillance
smarino
florida Explorer
A very recent interview w/ Eric Snowden. He talks about a film, a Donald Trump presidency (only briefly unfortunately) and largely about real instances of mass surveillance. It's about an hour long and the language is clear and concise.
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I believe it was Edward Snowden, not Eric, but yes, very interesting. Also the sponsoring organisation is very cool, StartPage is a search engine which is privacy focused and keeps a minimum of personally identifiable information about you.
I thought this part was particularly well caught: "During investigations it has been shown that all of these large investigation programmes such as prism don't meaningfully contribute to terrorism investigation. They have never yet made a significant difference to a terrorism operation. Instead, they are about power - business intelligence, social insight, control. Anti-terrorism has always been a policing problem, and has been countered using traditional policing methods for hundreds of years. So why are we now giving up rights that have been hard-won, fought for over decades, to politicians who are merely asking "we need this to do what we were already doing"."
And the point relevant to Buddhism on this discussion is....?
Well it is in General Banter...
.... General Banter in a Buddhist site...
I personally think we should try to limit the politics to 1 post. It's a huge topic and a lot of people want to talk about it right now, but there are at least 3 threads that are all politics already, we don't really need another one IMO. It's nice to have a place where it's easy to see where the politics is and skip it if needed, it gets to be too much.
As a Briton who is about as disinterested in politics as anyone could be, I am inclined to agree. Political talk churns my stomach because from my own point of view, every single politician sooner or later, resorts to manipulation and lying, and is exposed as self-serving. Which is both disastrous and terrifying. I haven't voted in nearly 30 years, so rather than being someone who is criticised as being therefore wholly unqualified to comment, actually the reverse is true because I hold all parties and politicians to an equal level of suspicion, mistrust and contempt and am sadly more often than not, proven right.
Removed as I am from current events in the USA, I perceive this as a fairly turbulent tornado in a soup bowl that, once everything settles and dies down, will prove to be just another slice of crazy same old, same-old. Simmer down, folks. Go back to your homes, there's nothing (new) to see here. Political posturing is more transitory than parade ticker-tape. Goodnight all. Sleep well. I have no doubt Trump is going to experience quite a few restless nights and think " what do I do now?!" far more than he would have you believe. For my part, I see you're stuck with him for at least 4 years (barring any impeachment) so I would respectfully suggest you deal with it, accept it and move on.
In the spirit of fair play (because most members here ARE American, after all) and because acting in haste one can repent at leisure (but at least I can do something about it!) and because it's been pointed out to me that as all threads go, all threads eventually go, I'll re-open this.
But any 'ad hominem nastiness or occasional crucifixion' and I slam-dunk it shut again...
The kids, bless their malleable brains, are embracing a new kind of future. Transparency. They open their lives, message what they are cooking. Know the trivia of their friends.
The people who want privacy, including the insecurity agencies will be superceded by open security where our actions and words and those of our politicians, military and crucifiers will be open. Snowden is not an advocate of a sustainable future of implants and life recording but somone seemingly still unaware of the benefits of how having all data in the cloud will one day be freely accessible to increasing numbers and is positive potential. Sure it can be abused and he was a willing part of such dinosaur thinking ... and is an inevitable manifestation of its decline.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_government
We Buddhist gathers are using a not so private internet gathering ... Snowden is or perhaps was a Buddhist. He does not like the economic, political and social unkindness of his government? Good for him. Now what?
Co-operative government accountable to consumers and users? A whistle blowing culture? Manipulating self defeating memes? A better quality of politician? Crowd sourced free enterprise? I do not expect a brainwashed Jason Bourne type Snowden or his reformed self to come up with solutions but they are coming ... for example are you using open source software?
https://opensource.org
This posting freely available to all interested parties ...
Ah yes, Edward, thanks for catching that.
I wasn't aware that politics on a Buddhist site in General Banter meant only Buddhist banter, and I honestly don't even know what that would mean? Perhaps I misunderstood that. It doesn't say General Buddhist Banter. I just thought it was an interesting video pertaining to the day and also to our practice and put it up. Please delete if it is too off topic. I guess I just don't have a dogmatic way of looking at life, and everything is all grist for the mill as Ram Dass said, someone that is also is not a Buddhist, but a kind person that has many interesting observations to help us along with his unique perspective.
This is just my opinion, but everything is political in our lives, even as Buddhists. Not everyone sees it like that, and that in itself is a political way of seeing things. There are threads about this because, again, only in my opinion, this recent American election is an important development in people's lives, and not only in America. We are seeing a different perspective in many countries now, and this is just one particular manifestation of that. What Snowden says about that and a mass surveillance society could absolutely affect people's freedoms, and already has, and when we're talking about the freedom to practice our chosen religions and spiritual disciplines, then who knows if Buddhists might not be the next group of people that someone wants to see banned from entering a country?
If any sort of talk churns people up, that points to our practice. That is my understanding anyway. If I am constantly reacting to what someone says or discusses, and sure, I have done this before, then I am just going to be one miserable, suffering individual. If I am centered in my practice, then whatever is going down is just that.
Again, if this disturbs people or does not fit into their parameters of what is appropriate, well then I just misunderstood something, and not for the first or last time, so just delete it. It is certainly not a topic I would normally be discussing here, but how can you NOT discuss it at this point in time? I live in a world where my buttons are being pushed on a daily basis over and over, every day there is some strange, bizarre sort of development, and my practice is about working w/ that and realizing that my buttons are the problem, not the world. It's a spiritual path w/o a destination, there is never a point where we get anywhere, it just starts up anew each moment.
I think it's an interesting topic suitable for General Banter... we are all trying to not-cling to the state of the world, but not-clinging to the extent where you are ignoring important trends is also not healthy.
One needs to be mindfully aware that the direction the world is going in is that everything you say and do online can be traced back to you by the authorities, if they feel like it. This is the state exerting power over the individual, and they are trying for complete transparancy of the online world.
In the hands of a dictatorship or police state something like that is incredibly dangerous. In the hands of western democracy, well who knows. It's a discussion worth having.
I talked to an Hindu priest some years ago ..when I mentioned some world event..he dismissed it with "this place will never be any different"...its a realm that has always had conflict
It all boils down to what @karasti said above, @smarino: there are at least three threads dealing with politics.
Since this is one of the few places where most members can meet to discuss Buddhism, more threads relevant to the Buddhist practice would be warmly welcome.
Moderator note:
Well as this is a political thread, I took a choice to let it lie. I would respectfully suggest that those who do not wish to see politcal threads or comment in them, refrain from doing so.
Thread history will tell you, unquestionably and without exception that threads are eventually abandoned as new topic matters come up.
For example, there are quite a few threads on sex and lust doing the rounds at the moment too. Anyone complained about that? No.
Wonder why....
That makes me wonder how the spiritual realms inter-are with the physical ones... will have to find an enlightened one to comment properly, lol.
It could be because for the person who practices Buddhism, sex and lust tend to be subjects which carry a heavy attachment and craving component to them, and many people have a hard time deciding which is the subtle balance to integrate them to the Buddhist morals.
The question was rhetorical, @DhammaDragon. And I see no difference in attachment to Politics, sex or any other form of attachment. Attachment is attachment. Sex is hard to integrate into Buddhist morals. So is Political opinion.
Like I said, if you people don't like a thread, it's easy to stay out of it. Much easier I guarantee, than fighting the attachment to politics itself. Or sex, even.
No response necessary.