When I saw the name of the brave man who released the truth about the US government's search of our communications without a warrant I was struck by the connection to Joseph Heller's classic book Catch-22. The 1961 novel is about the insanity and absurdity of war and the men who run the bureaucracy that keeps it going. The term 'Catch-22' has filtered into our language to mean being trapped in a situation from which there is no escape, even when we see the damage it's doing to us.
Edward Snowden is the ex-CIA defense contractor working for Booz Allen who blew the whistle on the extent of data collection by the government. He is now seeking asylum outside of the US in an attempt to avoid life imprisonment for the release of government secrets. The absurdity of this is fully apparent: he will go to prison for releasing the secret documents showing that our government is secretly obtaining and reviewing our secret documents and communications. This is a Catch-22 situation.
There is a character in the novel Catch-22 named Snowden. Snowden dies near the end of the book and symbolizes the descent of man to the condition of animals who live and die without reason. The basis of Catch-22 is that the war is crazy and you can only be discharged from it if you are medically discharged as being 'crazy.' But the catch, Catch-22, is that if you try to get a discharge for being crazy you must be sane, because only a sane man would try to get out of the war. Therefore you cannot be released from duty. Do you see the parallels to the present day Snowden and our national ideal versus our nation's reality?
We have been forced into a condition where, as Senator Lindsey Graham said the other day, anyone who objects to losing their privacy rights must be guilty of a criminal act against the government, because if they were not guilty they would not object. Catch-22.
Edward Snowden, the whistleblower, has put the United States government in a position where it must acknowledge that our security is not secure, and it is not there to keep you safe. The purpose of national security is to spy on you. If you object to this violation of your constitutional rights you are a suspect. Will we allow the United States governance machine to sacrifice Snowden to its dehumanizing, technological system? Will this Snowden, like the Snowden in the novel, be killed as a symbol of the collapse of humanity?
CATCH-22 is AGENDA 21
Edward Snowden is the ex-CIA defense contractor working for Booz Allen who blew the whistle on the extent of data collection by the government. He is now seeking asylum outside of the US in an attempt to avoid life imprisonment for the release of government secrets. The absurdity of this is fully apparent: he will go to prison for releasing the secret documents showing that our government is secretly obtaining and reviewing our secret documents and communications. This is a Catch-22 situation.
There is a character in the novel Catch-22 named Snowden. Snowden dies near the end of the book and symbolizes the descent of man to the condition of animals who live and die without reason. The basis of Catch-22 is that the war is crazy and you can only be discharged from it if you are medically discharged as being 'crazy.' But the catch, Catch-22, is that if you try to get a discharge for being crazy you must be sane, because only a sane man would try to get out of the war. Therefore you cannot be released from duty. Do you see the parallels to the present day Snowden and our national ideal versus our nation's reality?
We have been forced into a condition where, as Senator Lindsey Graham said the other day, anyone who objects to losing their privacy rights must be guilty of a criminal act against the government, because if they were not guilty they would not object. Catch-22.
Edward Snowden, the whistleblower, has put the United States government in a position where it must acknowledge that our security is not secure, and it is not there to keep you safe. The purpose of national security is to spy on you. If you object to this violation of your constitutional rights you are a suspect. Will we allow the United States governance machine to sacrifice Snowden to its dehumanizing, technological system? Will this Snowden, like the Snowden in the novel, be killed as a symbol of the collapse of humanity?
CATCH-22 is AGENDA 21
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