uicksilver workshopVia mefi, John Perry Barlow (Co-Founder & Vice Chairman, Electronic Frontier Foundation) has similar hopes. He believes that Dick Cheney is at the helm:
"While I think that rock n¹ roll and the systemic failures of central planning had as much to do with the collapse of communism as did Dick¹s mad gamble, I have to confess that, by 1990, he didn¹t look quite so nuts to me after all. The MX, along with Star Wars and Reagan¹s terrifying rhetoric, had been all along a weapon for waging psychological rather than nuclear warfare. I¹m starting to wonder if were aren¹t watching something like the same strategy again. In other words, it¹s possible Cheney and company are actually bluffing.This time, instead of trying to terrify the Soviets into collapse, the objective is even grander. If I¹m right about this, they have two goals. Neither involves actual war, any more than the MX missile did."
The rest of his analysis is very similar to thoughts I've been entertaining since the global peace protests of mid-February. The administration's lack of response to those protests lead me to believe, like Barlow, that this is about more than oil, or terrorism, or any other easily packaged and consumed "reason."
Regardless, the final analysis still scares the shit out of me. I find myself very much in agreement with Barlow's final statement:
"By then, I expect to be dancing in Brazil, far from this heart of darkness and closer to the heart itself."
Labels: Dick Cheney, EFF, missile defense
