Ever since I watched Piers Morgan ask Breitbart News Ben Shapiro “Do you genuinely believe your own government is going to turn on you in a way that you require an AR-15 to challenge them?” in a tone of voice just dripping with patronizing British snarkiness, I’ve been thinking about how an intelligent person can look at our government’s appalling lack of transparency (fake email accounts, not keeping public records,) and swaggering power-grabs without considering the very real possibility of a rising tyranny. As Ben Shapiro points out, our history is replete with examples of governments (often led by charismatic despots) descending into tyranny; as Jefferson (who knew a thing or two about tyranny) succintly puts it
“…in questions of power then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution…”
To Piers Morgan, we are living in a world where the constraints of the Constitution on government are no longer needed. We should just trust in our officials to not let all that power go to their heads–just sit down, shut up and watch America’s Got Talent. Your betters have got this, people! No worries, mate!! (Oops, wrong accent).
When I heard about the suicide last Friday of Aaron Swartz, I have to admit that I only vaguely knew who he was. I knew he had something to do with the downfall of SOPA, the Senate bill that used copyright as a club to beat the Internet with, but not much more. I felt sorrow for his tragic death, and for some reason, I felt compelled to do some research into who he was and what he stood for. What I found clicked into the empty spot in my mind where I’d been mulling over Piers Morgan’s vapid support of our paternalistic government overlords (I’m looking at you, Nanny Bloomberg).
It seems that Aaron Swartz believed in something called Open Access, which would open up vast stores of scientific and scholarly research and make it available to all for free instead of locked up behind paywalls. For Aaron, it made no sense that a scientist would want access to their work to be limited (although I’m sure that the researchers at East Anglia Climate Unit may have had an interest in keeping their data hidden). Agree or disagree with the aims of the Open Access movement, Aaron Swartz believed in it enough to act on his convictions. He “liberated” millions of documents using MIT’s open network (documents only–no personal or unrelated information was “stolen”) because of his belief that “information is power” and shouldn’t be controlled by a few. Thus, he was prosecuted (or persecuted, depending on your point of view) to the point of suicide (according to his understandably bereaved family).
I don’t know if Piers Morgan can understand how someone out here in the American Heartland might connect dots together to form a perfectly reasonable opinion that our government is too big and too arrogant. When I listened to Aaron speak about stopping SOPA, I notice his calm discussion of constitutional issues and how they apply in the digital age, and especially his disgust for the political maneuvering and naked corruption endemic to Washington, D.C. A part of me sees the same danger that he saw, in a society where government, academia, and media are all conspiring to organize and shape not only our opinions, but our very access to accurate, transparent information. Aaron relates his interaction with a U.S. Senator about SOPA, who yelled “It’s gotta be under control!”
Did you hear that, Piers? CONTROL. That’s why CNN is highlighting your interview with Alex Jones while downplaying Ben Shapiro smacking you down. As long as you feel like you are on the side of those in control, you feel safe. Fine–you are free to be the ignoramus that you are. However, don’t forget Martin Niemoller’s insight. You might be surprised to find yourself the last one standing.
First they came for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.