Tuesday, July 16, 2013

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.


8 comments:

mike said...

A 2006, Vanity Fair excerpt from astrologer Michael Lutin:

"If you think that things are tough now, and that privacy and other personal liberties are being infringed upon, just wait. During the next 19 years, things are going to get much tighter. Controls and laws will become more stringent. Pluto in Capricorn will demand conformity, born out of fear that different is dangerous. The more resistance to government protection, the more protection the government will try to provide. The words "patriot" and "treason" will lose their meaning, and in some cases they will become interchangeable. What is treason to one person will be patriotism to another—just as it was back in the 1760s and 70s. The country's mood will become darker and much more conservative. It's not going to be a matter of Democrat or Republican anymore, because the new ideologies will bleed across party lines.

...Pluto in Capricorn is going to change America from the inside out, threaten our very existence, challenge our economy, and divide the country politically. The government is going to be so paranoid during those years that it doesn't really matter who gets in in 2008."

The full article is well worth reading:
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2006/12/lutin200612#

Twilight said...

mike ~~ That's an excellent article - thank you for the link to it. I've read it all, saved it to "Favourites" as well.

Pluto, as Lutin said, despite it's size is very potent - or appears to be. In my version of astrology, it's the time wave marked by Pluto that holds the potency. ;-)

My own experience with Pluto upholds what the astrologer says, though I'm not "a Sadge", I have Venus in Sagittarius (this is my only quibble with his piece - it's not just Sun signs involved!)and when Pluto conjoined my natal Venus what he wrote applied - almost to the letter:

Though Pluto has recently been demoted by astronomers to a not-quite planet, try telling that to any Sadge who's been to hell and back over the last 10 years, thanks to the passage of Pluto through Sagittarius. The power of the little dwarf is so profound and catastrophic that it doesn't matter if you call it a planet or not—it's a killer.
But, oddly, it's also a healer. When Pluto moves into your sign, it threatens to devastate you emotionally and physically, letting you know along the way that you must stop whatever you are doing. However you were conducting business or your personal life, that's over. Finito. Kaput.

When you come out of a Pluto transit, you are changed forever. In another state. But during the process you don't realize what's happening. Life can get pretty dark. With Pluto, you can't look ahead. You can't be impatient. Most of all, you shouldn't be afraid, because in the end there is nothing to fear. You just have to surrender to the mysterious process of complete and total transformation. This is about to happen to the United States as we deal with an opposition of Pluto in the sign of Capricorn to our Cancer sun.


His predictions regarding the USA are on point so far!

mike (again) said...

I have natal Mercury, Venus, and Sun conjunct in mid-Scorpio...1987 through 1991 were breath-taking, truly, as Pluto transited! Nothing was ever the same again, but it led to tremendous maturing and gain that I couldn't have foreseen previous to that shattering transit. There is definitely free-will in a Pluto transit, but it's more like being caught in a major river just prior to the waterfall that plunges to the rapids below. Should I take a last gasp for air or simply go under and conserve what I have?

Twilight said...

mike ~~ Yes. Once someone has these kinds of experiences it's difficult, just about impossible, not to find validity in at least some astrological doctrine.

I don't know whether you've seen an old post of mine of this general topic - not only Pluto transit, but that transit in concert with the other outers, and how these affected my life during the mid 1990s to 2004 - if not, and you have a spare 10 minutes sometime, it's here:

http://twilightstarsong.blogspot.com/2011/04/transitory-adventures-with-uranus.html

mike (again) said...

I never quite know what to say to someone that has gone through a lot of painful change, except that it's wonderful when the sky clears and it's all in the past.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OITxdCJg2Y

Jimmy Cliff lyrics : "Bright Sunshiny Day"

I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW THE RAIN IS GONE
I CAN SEE ALL OBSTACLES IN MY WAY
Gone are are the dark clouds that had me blind
IT'S GONNA BE A BRIGHT BRIGHT BRIGHT SUN SHINY DAY
IT'S GONNA BE A BRIGHT BRIGHT BRIGHT SUN SHINY DAY

I think I CAN MAKE IT NOW THE PAIN IS GONE
ALL OF THE BAD FEELINGS HAVE DISAPPEARED
HERE IS THAT RAINBOW I'VE BEEN PRAYING FOR
IT'S GONNA BE A BRIGHT BRIGHT BRIGHT SUN SHINY DAY

LOOK ALL AROUND THERE'S NOTHING BUT BLUE SKIES
LOOK STRAIGHT AHEAD THERE'S NOTHING BUT BLUE SKIES

AHH, AHH, AHH, AHH
OOOOOOO

I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW THE RAIN IS GONE
I CAN SEE ALL OBSTACLES IN MY WAY
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
IT'S GONNA BE A BRIGHT (BRIGHT) BRIGHT SUN SHINY DAY
IT'S GONNA BE A BRIGHT (BRIGHT) BRIGHT SUN SHINY DAY

OH YEAH
IT'S GONNA BE A BRIGHT BRIGHT BRIGHT SUN SHINY DAY
IT'S GONNA BE A BRIGHT BRIGHT BRIGHT SUN SHINY DAY
IT'S GONNA BE A BRIGHT BRIGHT BRIGHT SUN SHINY DAY-EE-A-EE-YEAH




Twilight said...

mike ~ Thanks - lovely song!
It all seems so long ago now - almost as though it happened to someone else.

Speaking (or singing) of rain - we've had quite a lot in the past 3 days - so the Sacred Rain Arrow on our car licence tags is working well this year after 3 years of drought. :-)

mike (again) said...

"...almost as though it happened to someone else."

Reminds me of a line from a poem that I read a number of years ago that stayed in my head after reading (but I can't find the title or author!):
"Life is like coral, always building upon the dead".

Yes, your license plates are effective for us here in the VERY parched deep south. Rain and showers yesterday and today...the gentle, soaking-in kind!

Twilight said...

mike ~ Your very nice quote from a poem made me think of lines from a song that make me grin whenever I hear them:

"I've loved, I've laughed and cried
I've had my fill, my share of losing
And now, as tears subside, I find it all so amusing
To think I did all that
And may I say, not in a shy way,
"Oh, no, oh, no, not me, I did it my way"


:-)