I'm a writer. I have been a writer all my life. I like that I can make blog posts, and put my views out for people to comment, all the while hoping what I post makes some people laugh or think. At best, I can hope that something I write helps initiate a dialog leading to some kind of change or action. I post regularly, and probably will for the foreseeable future, but I have no desire to be a celebrity or a public person.
Anyone who has followed me for any length of time knows that I grew up in a fairly crazy, fucked up situation. It took me years of self-destructive behavior, personal strife, and a shit load of therapy to get to a point where I could deal with my past and create a happy future for myself and my family. One of the keys to creating that happy future was stability. I want my girls to have the stability I never had, because I believe when you have a stable situation, you can focus on pursuing your dreams and interests. This means I live in Suburbia, not because I like it, but because I want to give my kids that wonderful feeling of looking at a house and knowing it is their home.
To deal with living in a place where I completely feel out of place, I write about it. In those writings I bitch and moan, point out absurdity and hypocrisy, and hopefully, make others living in similar situations feel a little better about their lives.
I have actually done meet ups a few times with people who read my blogs, and they've gone quite well. I will admit that I research the reader prior to meeting up with them just to rule out the homicidal maniac factor, but thankfully, I've not run into any weirdos. Aside from less than a handful of meet ups, I remain a private person. I have absolutely no desire to be a celebrity or attain any level of public notoriety. In my professional life, I am the person behind the curtain, and I'm very cool with that, which is why I find this latest story about the NSA spying on Americans so disturbing.
One of my favorite novels of all time is George Orwell's 1984. I read it for the first time when I was in the 8th grade, and usually read it every few years. This latest scandal, which the government has responded to by publicly saying they don't give a damn about it, falls so much into Orwell's playbook it's horrifying. We live in a country that now has drones, mindless machines that are programmed to kill indiscriminately, we have no real media anymore, since corporations have bought out all of the traditional media outlets, so we essentially have nothing to monitor the government, and now in a twisted turn of fate, our government, like Orwell's Big Brother now watches us.
The corporate media is falling lock-step with the government on ignoring the NSA spying claiming that Americans have ceded their privacy, because they are on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, post YouTube videos, and write blogs. However, no one ever seems to point out that most people who post don't do it for fame or to gain public notoriety, they do it to share personal information and experiences with their social circle. Just because I tell my FB friends that I don't like Monsanto controlling our food supply doesn't mean I want the NSA to start a file on me as a potential eco terrorist.
I support the Occupy Movement, because I hate the fact that Wall Street robbed our country, made us all a lot poorer and got away with it. I'm happy to share my boycott list with anyone who wants it, again, because I don't like Monsanto, the creator of Agent Orange, controlling our food supply. I hate old, white men telling me what I can and can't do with my body, and I'm very vocal about it, because I have two daughters who I'm trying to teach to own their bodies. Since the NSA surveillance program is targeting all Americans, I might be file-worthy several times over, but I'm not sure what that means for my future and the future of my family.
As a kid in the '80s, I would hear the stories about the Pinochet regime and the thousands of "disappeared", every night on the news there would be stories about Soviet citizens living in fear of the KGB, and well into the '90s and new millennium, we were inundated with stories about Saddam Hussein and evil totalitarian dictators who committed egregious human rights violations, oppressed their people by monitoring them, arresting journalists and whistleblowers, and keeping their people in a constant state of fear. With this NSA revelation, we are inching forever closer to becoming one of those oppressive states we grew up glad we didn't live in.
As I write this, there is a young man holed up in a hotel in Hong Kong. He had to reveal himself publicly as the person who blew the whistle on the NSA. Had he remained anonymous, he'd likely be dead right now. He is petitioning China for asylum, because he knows that China is the one nation the U.S. likely won't be drone bombing anytime soon. He knows he can never come back to the States or he will end up like Bradley Manning. In earlier years, we had real news that would have praised this man for letting us know that our government is doing something way too Big Brother, but the media social safety net doesn't exist anymore.
Yes, I post blogs and make Facebook status updates. I have phone calls with my friends and family about how I don't like the fact that wealthy corporations own our government. I don't believe any of that qualifies as ceding my privacy or inviting an NSA investigation. I don't live in Oceania, and like most Americans, I don't want to.
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