As friend DH points out, the NSA appears to be close to having created “The Machine” described in the television show “Person of Interest”. Combine this database and data capture technology with IBM’s Watson technology and presto, you have “The Machine”, the ultimate tool for leveraging fear, hatred as well as blackmail.
See: “Person of Interest”: The TV Show That Predicted Edward Snowden
By Joshua Rothman
Jan 14 2014
See also:
No Place to Hide: We’re All Suspects In Barack Obama’s America
By Robert Scheer
Jan 21 2014
And for more on the political use of fear, see:
Fifty States of Fear
By PETER LUDLOW
Jan 19 2014
The British philosopher Bertrand Russell, writing as World War II was drawing to a close in Europe, observed that “neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.” Russell’s point was that irrational fear can propel us into counterproductive activities, ranging from unjust wars and the inhumane treatment of others to more mundane cases like our failure to seize opportunities to improve our everyday lives.
Ludlow, however, does not make the connection to the combination of fear and hate, which was made by Goebbels and Stalin. The combination is greater than the sum of its parts and creates a very powerful propaganda tool for influencing behavior.
In the end, it is all about political and economic power. Who has it, who is gaining it, and who is afraid of losing it. In recent times, to see fear in operation it is essential to go back to at least the Russian revolution and the deep fear it created for those whose power and wealth depends on tight centralized control.”The Machine” created by the NSA et al is designed primarily to preserve centralized control and the advantages it gives those who operate it.
