Jack Henderson

George Orwell published 1984 sixty-four years ago yesterday, which makes that great novel around 10 years older than I am. Orwell then passed away at age 46 —- largely as a result of the personal struggle to produce that book —- and so he was 8 years my junior when he died. Those two facts just about cover any valid comparison I would ever presume between myself and this author or his work.

A lot of novels have been held up against Orwell’s 1984, including my first one. While it’s a fine compliment, I’ve yet to find a book for which that’s actually an apt comparison. Don’t get me wrong, I really love Circumference of Darkness, but to call any contemporary work of fiction “a modern 1984!” is to overlook the truly timeless nature of the original. There’s simply no need for a modern 1984; that novel is and always will be as current as tomorrow.

Among other things, my book (finished in ’04) predicted the rise of a technocratic surveillance state in the aftermath of 9/11. (Don’t look now, but that’s well underway.) Orwell’s book, on the other hand, documented a fundamental drive toward tyranny in the hearts of those who seek power, and painted a vivid picture of the world these people would create if given the chance. The technology that’s bringing Big Brother into our lives is a recent development; the tyrants have always been with us, and always will be.

Update: The EFF produced a timeline of these recent surveillance developments. I hesitated to include the link earlier since their site was getting hammered, but heavy traffic makes a statement of its own, so here you go: Timeline of NSA Domestic Spying

There was a time when it wasn’t so hard to be an anonymous whistleblower, though it’s always taken guts. You could make a call from a random payphone (to drop a dime on some evil-doer), mail a package of sensitive documents or photographic negatives in a plain brown wrapper, or arrange a face-to-face meeting with a couple of courageous, principled reporters in a parking garage.

Nowadays just about everything you do leaves a trail — you’re leaving one right now. That bread-crumbing is by design, of course. And while each of the scores of entities who track you for marketing (and other supposedly benign) purposes may not yet be cc:-ing your casual interests to Homeland Security, those terms-of-service you agreed to might not rule it out in the future.

If you ever do decide to report on the crimes of some powerful entity, we’ve all been assured by current events that (unless you’re very careful) it probably won’t be long before you’re identified and possibly charged for your trouble. It’s not getting better; our current administration (the most transparent in history, according to the brochure) has already prosecuted far more whistle-blowers than all previous administrations combined.

DeadDrop is an open-source software system conceived by the late Aaron Swartz to provide a very secure, anonymous digital drop-box for anyone who might need one. The New Yorker has now launched their own implementation and others will certainly follow.

It’s a start; secure protocols are made to be broken, and you can bet the back-rooms are buzzing with well-funded initiatives to break this one. Nevertheless, I’m hoping for the best. As a general rule, and within the bounds of true national security, of course, I think more truth in our lives is far better than less.

I’ve been a long-time subscriber to Bruce’s newsletter and have always found every issue to be a wealth of timely insight and intelligence. In response to the recent and developing revelations on our elected government’s latest overreach, he’s written an essay on the critical role of transparency and accountability in a free society.

As we respond to the threat of terrorism, we must remember that there are other threats as well. A society without transparency and accountability is the very definition of a police state. And while a police state might have a low crime rate — especially if you don’t define police corruption and other abuses of power as crime — and an even lower terrorism rate, it’s not a society that most of us would willingly choose to live in.

In my opinion, it really doesn’t matter who’s in office, which co-opted party they’re aligned with, or whether or not they really believe they’re doing what they’re doing for our own good. I think that power was specifically dispersed in our founding documents for a very good reason: many people, given power, immediately set about to get more and more. In government, the endpoint of all that blind ambition is never going to be more liberty for the people.

The press, of course, is meant to be our first line of defense against the abuse and unchecked expansion of power. Unfortunately that can make principled reporters into targets. The truth matters, though, maybe more than ever, and it’s a critically important time now for those with the courage to seek it.

Colonel Chris Hadfield, nailing it.

Yeah, I’m old. But I was a fascinated kid when we first landed a man on the Moon, and I can’t help sometimes but miss the days when the frontiers being tested by the space program were often in the top of the news.

Anyway, enjoy.

Bowie himself recommends.

CHRIS HADFIELD SINGS SPACE ODDITY IN SPACE!“Hallo Spaceboy…”Commander Chris Hadfield, currently on… fb.me/24sZNW5ly

— David Bowie Official (@DavidBowieReal) May 12, 2013