Fear is imposed by the powers that be for the purpose of guaranteeing they remain in 'power'. All US federal politicians and bureaucrats, all military personnel, have sworn an oath to uphold and defend the US Constitution from enemies "both foreign and domestic". Even the US Constitution acknowledges that the government personnel in power at any given time are the very people we should protect ourselves from.
Living as we are at the nadir of materialism means those powers have accumulated a lot of stuff to worry about. They're so worried they've built an ever expanding global eavesdropping network who's dark depths are seeing the light a bit more each day thanks to Edward Snowden and Glen Greenwald. The best, healthiest response comes from the Brazilians who are using humor to mock and subvert the NSA's surveillance schemes. Though an online sentence-generator designed to confound the N.S.A. by using 'dangerous' keywords comes a close second.
They're worried. Obama and Congress, the puppets who if their strings were cut would fall to the ground motionless, agree the laws are already on the books that allow suspension of the constitution and impose USA-wide martial law administered by Homeland Security if Obama, or any future president, declares a national security emergency. The laws, Cicero wrote in the days of the Roman Republic, “are silent in time of war.” But what if the war has no end, no defined enemy, no defined territory?
Snowden is a hero, he understands that as Voltaire said, "It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong." A hero, both gives himself to a seemingly impossible fight at whatever personal cost, but, of greater gravitas, a hero gives strength to those of us not as fearless in the face overwhelming odds.
Tonight a whole gang of us are going to the Anthrax show–Toxic Holocaust is opening. It's going to be explosive.
