The word zeitgeist occurred to me while reading a March 22 headline in the New York Post: “Military-Style Drones Will Patrol NYC.”
The report sprang from comments made by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in his weekly radio broadcast to New Yorkers. Bloomberg predicted that drones would be conducting covert surveillance on New York City residents within a few years. Calling them “eyes in the sky,” he patronizingly explained,
Everybody wants their privacy, but I don’t know how you’re going to maintain it. It’s just we’re going into a different world, uncharted, and, like it or not, what people can do, what governments can do, is different. And you can to some extent control, but you can’t keep the tides from coming in.
The word zeitgeist occurred to me because walking down a street in America feels different now than it did ten years ago. It is not merely the surveillance cameras or the increased police presence. The atmosphere, the feel, is different.
(...)
A schism is deepening between average people and politicians or the politically connected, who now constitute an elite. In his broadcast, Bloomberg explicitly endorsed a double standard in the law for average people and for officials. He stated bluntly, “It’s just we’re going into a different world, uncharted, and, like it or not, what people can do, what governments can do, is different.” The difference is already evident in the various legal immunities granted to civil servants, court officials, and law-enforcement agents. But it is still surprising to hear a prominent politician admit that government is not “we the people”; the people and the government are two separate political and legal categories. Full story...
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The report sprang from comments made by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in his weekly radio broadcast to New Yorkers. Bloomberg predicted that drones would be conducting covert surveillance on New York City residents within a few years. Calling them “eyes in the sky,” he patronizingly explained,
Everybody wants their privacy, but I don’t know how you’re going to maintain it. It’s just we’re going into a different world, uncharted, and, like it or not, what people can do, what governments can do, is different. And you can to some extent control, but you can’t keep the tides from coming in.
The word zeitgeist occurred to me because walking down a street in America feels different now than it did ten years ago. It is not merely the surveillance cameras or the increased police presence. The atmosphere, the feel, is different.
(...)
A schism is deepening between average people and politicians or the politically connected, who now constitute an elite. In his broadcast, Bloomberg explicitly endorsed a double standard in the law for average people and for officials. He stated bluntly, “It’s just we’re going into a different world, uncharted, and, like it or not, what people can do, what governments can do, is different.” The difference is already evident in the various legal immunities granted to civil servants, court officials, and law-enforcement agents. But it is still surprising to hear a prominent politician admit that government is not “we the people”; the people and the government are two separate political and legal categories. Full story...
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