Celebrities say “Stop Watching Us”
October 25th, 2013
Celebrities are not hired for being deep thinkers. They are hired for accurately portraying emotions they aren’t actually feeling. So the phenomenon of celebrities using their fame for political advocacy has always struck me as a little weird. I guess they don’t expect their fans to be deep thinkers either. But from time to time a political issue is such a no brainer even Hollywood gets it right.
The Stop Watching Us video features director Oliver Stone, actor John Cusack, actress Maggie Gyllenhall, and legend Wil Wheaton speaking out against mass suspicionless surveillance the American people in collaboration with a variety of NSA whistleblowers and their allies.
StopWatching.Us is a coalition of more than 100 public advocacy organizations from across the political spectrum. The Alpha of the pack is The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) which we have long been fans of for their committed resistance to the NSA’s spying.
October 26th is the 12th anniversary of the signing of the Patriot Act, and to commiserate that event that coalition is holding a rally against NSA surveillance in Washington DC. They’ve invited a huge list of speakers including liberty leaning congressman Justin Amash, NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake, commentator Naomi Wolf, Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, congressman Dennis Kucinich and many others. Read more and see a map.
The central message of the video is that your digital footprint belongs to you. John Cusack sums it up pretty nicely as well when he says, “In the surveillance state, democracy itself is dead.”
You’d think something like this was a win all the way around. Left and Right coming together. The people over the powerful. Etc etc. But some leftist ideologues don’t see it that way. In an article from Salon titled “Don’t ally with libertarians” writer Tom Watson laments the participation of libertarians in this coalition. In his view the coalition is “fatally infected” by the participation of the Libertarian Party and other libertarian student groups. So, he supports the cause, but not the coalition or the rally.
His beef is that libertarians appose a bunch of other stuff he supports as a social democrat that have nothing to do with NSA surveillance. Libertarians oppose gun control laws, socialized healthcare, compulsory education, and various other leftist sacred cows, so he just can’t stomach the idea of standing with them on an issue we all agree on.
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This is a pretty text book example of horizontal slave discipline, and his attitude is an example of a trend in leftist political advocacy that cripples their efficacy. I saw this attitude first hand as a peace activist. I showed up to countless demonstrations and protests against American Empire, but I was expected by organizers to swallow a whole economic platform before I was considered part of the in crowd. While they chanted “Money for jobs and education, not for war and occupation” I asked simply if there wasn’t a more distinctly anti war slogan that did not exclude those of us who didn’t share their views on socialism and communism. (I’m not being hyperbolic. This was in San Francisco and the anti war organizers are often explicitly socialist or communist.)
You should have seen how quickly they turned against me. There I was, an anti war activist there to support an anti war event, but I was immediately drummed out of the group for not sharing their views on a whole host unrelated issues. What that tells me is that those activists prioritize their social agenda above the lives of those killed in aggressive wars. Tom Watson prioritizes all his leftist sacred cows above actually putting an end the surveillance state. Ironically he still holds a torch for the Democratic Party, which clearly doesn’t give a damn about surveillance in any meaningful way, but still trumpets bits and pieces of his social agenda. So, good for him for not attending. If was only ever participating to promote the unrelated issues in his social agenda, events like this don’t need him. And if leftists can’t bring themselves to form coalitions on issues where they do agree because of the issues where they don’t, so much the better for libertarians.
It is impossible to create a mass movement of people who walk in lock step on every issue, and if that is the standard of their standard they will be forever ineffective in achieving social change, leaving that task to those of us who can tolerate diversity.
In my opinion the rally doesn’t go far enough. They’re handing half a million petitions to Congress “to remind them that they work for us.” I predict Congress will completely ignore this gesture, which should remind everyone that Congress doesn’t work for us, and there’s no evidence anywhere to support such a claim. They’re calling for a full Congressional investigation of these intelligence programs and a reform of federal surveillance laws. Forgive me if that doesn’t impress me.
The libertarians need to co-opt more. Watson doesn’t like the official participation of libertarian groups in the rally, but since when do libertarians care about what’s official? The rally is open to the public. So, show up. But don’t bother signing a meaningless petition, or yelling until your voice is horse when you know no one is listening. This seems like a perfect opportunity for the Million Man Market idea.
The Lemonade Freedom activists, Raw Milk activists, Bitcoin enthusiasts, Silver bugs, Gold bugs and Agorist of all sorts should crash the party with a massive free market flash mob. Feed the march. Sell them t-shirts, and buttons, and ice cream, and stickers, and whatever else anybody thinks will be a hot selling item. Set up 10,000 new Bitcoin wallets. Rallies like this should be turned into a whole guerrilla counter-economic conference, and laissez-faire activists should profit doing it. The advocacy organizations will provide the customers. Let the Agorists provide everything else.
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