September 22, 2003
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i wonder if the next terror attack which will most definitely come as terrorism experts and administration officials assure us will result in an electronic resurrection of COINTELPRO empowered by Patriot Act II Total Information Awareness a computerized spy-monster databasing our lives in a Foucaultian Panoptic prison (1) and DARPA satellites that identify and target people by their gait i wonder if the probability of error which most definitely occurs as computer and mathematical experts and common sense inform us will cause collateral damage to innocents misidentified by their strolling style choice of head-gear or golden symbol dangling from their neck i wonder how many errors computerized voting would generate and how easily that facilitates disenfranchisement like occurred to over 90,000 residents in Florida (2) I wonder if the time will ever come when I will be censored blacklisted by publishing houses or muzzled like reporters at CNN (3) maybe even disappear to a Midwest American gulag lost to a historian's footnote like a young Russian poet I wonder when the big lie will be revealed but that doesn't usually happen until the empire falls · · · · · ·
References and Resources 1. For a detailed explanation see Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (New York: Vintage Books, 1995) pp. 195-228. (back) 2. Greg Palast, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy (New York: Plume Publishing, 2003), pp. 11-81. (back) 3. CNN's top war correspondent, Christine Amanpour, stated, "I think the press was muzzled, and I think the press self-muzzled. I'm sorry to say, but certainly television and, perhaps, to a certain extent, my station was intimidated by the administration and its foot soldiers at Fox News. And it did, in fact, put a climate of fear and self-censorship, in my view, in terms of the kind of broadcast work we did." -- CNBC, A Topic with Tina Brown (back) · · · · · ·
Resources Poetry on Swans America the 'beautiful' on Swans Scott Orlovsky is a World History & Cultures, and an American History teacher at Clifton High School in New Jersey. He has a BA in History from the Johns Hopkins University and a MA in History from the University of Colorado. Do you wish to share your opinion? We invite your comments. E-mail the Editor. Please include your full name, address and phone number. If we publish your opinion we will only include your name, city, state, and country. Please, feel free to insert a link to this article on your Web site or to disseminate its URL on your favorite lists, quoting a few paragraphs or providing a summary. However, please DO NOT steal, scavenge or repost this work on the Web. © Scott Orlovsky 2003. All rights reserved. |
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