Argus Panoptes & The Surveillance State

A phrase used in an essay by Alfred W. McCoy, professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, featured at Common Dreams yesterday: Surveillance Blowback: The Making of the U.S. Surveillance State, 1898-2020 prompted several good comments, one especially caught my eye, when the commenter quoted a phrase from these brief paragraphs of Prof McCoy's long essay:

Writing for TomDispatch four years ago during Obama’s first months in office, I suggested that the War on Terror has “proven remarkably effective in building a technological template that could be just a few tweaks away from creating a domestic surveillance state -- with omnipresent cameras, deep data-mining, nano-second biometric identification, and drone aircraft patrolling ‘the homeland.’"
That prediction has become our present reality - and with stunning speed. Americans now live under the Argus-eyed gaze of a digital surveillance state, while increasing numbers of surveillance drones fill American skies. In addition, the NSA’s net now reaches far beyond our borders, sweeping up the personal messages of many millions of people worldwide and penetrating the confidential official communications of at least 30 allied nations. The past has indeed proven prologue. The future is now.

Commenter "Aleph Null" said:

The author's phrase "Argus-eyed gaze of a digital surveillance state" raises the hope that the digital surveillance state can be defeated, as was Argus, the hundred-eyed giant appointed by Juno to keep watch over her rival Io (temporarily inhabiting the body of a cow). Jove sent Mercury, the trickster, to lull Argus to sleep with a magic wand and a story about panpipes. Mercury's next trick was to lop off Argus' head, which went rolling down the hillside. Juno caught it and arranged Argus' eyes into the tail of her favorite bird, the peacock.

Perhaps this myth pertains to our time. Argus' job was keeping track of Io, which today connotes the Input and Output of computer systems. Snowden is the magic wand of courage, and Greenwald is telling the story. The fact that the surveillance state is sleepwalking explains the idiotic antics over Evo Morales' flight, which have further alienated most of Latin America. The demise of Argus arises from the enduring suspicion world citizens retain for the US and all its national and corporate minions. The modern totalitarian Argus can only see in the darkness of concealment, and now the jig is up.

Another commenter ("theoldgoat") responded and expanded on the myth and analogy:

Wonderful post! Taking a look at Wikipedia on Argos, one finds that Argos was Hera's servant and guardian of Io (seduced by god-husband-Zeus who turned her into a heifer to escape detection!). Io is situated within the symbolic dynamics of the natural world and directly connected to the dimensions of Gaia.

I'd expand on your interpretation of Io connoting the binomial reductionistic vision of life to input-output of the computer information dynamic - to the commodification of life: everything measured as relativistic resource for "consumption".

There is a reciprocal mortification (rendering lifeless) in conceptualization and resulting usury, setting up a cycle of devolution. We tend to limit the concept of usury to a monetary transaction. But before any transaction is the mortification of living dimensions rendering them 'invisible' to be reduced to the monetary.

Notable is Hera functioning within the possessory scope of the patriarchal god-symbol of Zeus. Is it any wonder womens' rights are such a target right now!

Depictions of the Argus Panoptes myth can be found on Greek pottery, as above. There's a modern painting of the myth by Andre Durand at his website.

Back to real life, and the essay linked at the top of this post. The last three paragraphs are especially spooky - even if you don't have the time, or inclination, to read the whole essay, please read these.

Daniel Ellsberg in a recent talk said:"There's the infrastructure for a police state here that has never existed in the history of the world................You may think you have nothing to hide, but how sure are you that your congressman has nothing to hide?"

The executive branch has access to blackmail leverage over the legislature, the judiciary, and the media, subverting the structure envisioned by the US constitution. The Carlyle Group (parent of Booz Allen where Edward Snowden was last employed) will have blackmail leverage over the executive branch. Something to keep in mind from now on, because this isn't going away any time soon, or any time at all, without a long and determined fight. Hermes isn't on hand to do the deed these days, sad to say.