The Way Things Are Supposed to Work

Friday 7 June 2013 - Filed under Uncategorized

Glenn Greenwald at The Guardian concerning a functioning, democratic society:

The way things are supposed to work is that we’re supposed to know virtually everything about what they do: that’s why they’re called public servants. They’re supposed to know virtually nothing about what we do: that’s why we’re called private individuals.

This dynamic – the hallmark of a healthy and free society – has been radically reversed. Now, they know everything about what we do, and are constantly building systems to know more. Meanwhile, we know less and less about what they do, as they build walls of secrecy behind which they function. That’s the imbalance that needs to come to an end. No democracy can be healthy and functional if the most consequential acts of those who wield political power are completely unknown to those to whom they are supposed to be accountable.

This is exactly right. I should know virtually everything that government is doing, and the government should know virtually nothing about what I am doing. It is my job to judge them. And I can’t do that if everything they do is shrouded in secrecy. The only way to return to the default is to radically diminish the scope and size of the federal government. The goliath is unaccountable, and that unaccountability is being used against us. It time for it to end.

2013-06-07  »  madlibertarianguy