Innocence Lost....

Sometime back we lost our innocence. 

When wikileaks leaked Manning’s files worms crawled out affecting the pride of country leaders across the world. Egos were punctured because the cables sent by US embassy minions to their masters were judgmental in nature and revealed “private” foibles and conversations. This has been followed up by Snowden’s snowfall which is more damaging for the US Government and business than for any other government.

Over the past few months, every day we are stripped layer by layer by the revelations of the NSA’s prowess for invisibile intrusion. We thought the TSA guys were having fun seeing us in whole body scanners and sharing the pics, but it turns out that the NSA has been having more fun. Move over Guantanamo Bay that was just a small set of prisoners who could be stripped, chained or flogged – here they have the world at our fingertips, and no one looking over their shoulders.

First one learned that there was access to emails and internet conversations, the next layer included voice conversations, then came location data, followed by the revelation that IT majors like FB, Google. Microsoft, et al are participating in the program. Alongwith these businesses, some governments also howled in only to retract when the next revelation exposed their participation and remuneration. It was another shocker that told everyone about the possiblity of backdoors in commonly used software and hardware. The world started thinking about seeking safety under cover of encryption and proxy technologies only to learn that these have been seduced long ago – in other words encryption technologies have a backdoor.

So, is there anything which is safe? Maybe we have to go back to living in caves to save ourselves from this intrusion, because it seems that the only thing Uncle Sam cannot do is shove a finger up your 455. But, maybe the time is not too far off too what with the Internet of Things promising particle transportation and more!

Yes our innocence is lost – the new innocence is that “we do not look inside, we only search patterns”. The new innocence is that you are just a lump of flesh which eats, breathes, shits and screws and that’s it – simply put you are an animal and no more. Of course, this is so if you are not the most powerful man on earth, a.k.a. Mr President. Liberty, freedom, privacy and such rights are good to discuss but not to be expected in the face of secret laws and powers available with the intelligence organizations.  

In any case, even if you are Mr P there is no gurantee that someone did not dip into your smart phone or that of your wife or children. There is no way you would know, just like the world did not know until it started snowing. Quite possibly Mr Snowden carried some stuff on you and that is the major cause of the big manhunt that has been launched.

Today, every government wants their own NSA with enough powers to run every sort of surveillance on their citizens. What will be done with the data is anyone’s guess – maybe it will help run genocides and progroms more effectively. Or get to play ghetto-ghetto by segregating people based on caste, color, religion etc. At the cost of development, Governments are spending billions on technology selling the dream of nirvana that follows thorugh an e-governance portal or a new registration card, and it does not matter whether you can read or write, or whether you have had a square meal in a day.

Innocence lost forever, welcome to the new order Kalyug is now the C-Yug  where C=corruption, chamchagiri, cronyism, chutiyapanti, conmanship, carpetbaggers, cybercrime, computers and any other C which you can define negatively.

So what is happening is that we are all without clothes, having been stripped, layer by layer and naked for NSA eyes.

I wonder – are we a number or a name in the NSA records? Is this numeric, alpha-numeric, with or without capitalization. Or is it a continuation of the numbers given in Auschwitz and Dachau .. that may be apporpriate. Will we soon start hearing ‘arbeit macht frei’ or will it be embedded into our flesh at birth. Are we going to see Mr President in a new role as the oracle from Minority Report?

Mommy is that what Big Brother’s look like.

Wooooohhh !