domingo, 15 de septiembre de 2013

Big brother practices from the U.S. Government, are contagious?

By Juan Sebastián Cárdenas Salas


In the Sci-Fi cult movie “The Matrix”[1] life is an illusion created and controlled by machines. This control is represented by the Service Secret Agents of the Government as guardians inside that illusion whose mission is spying and keeping control over whatever sign of liberty and rebellious behavior against the system by humanity. It is not odd at all The U.S. Secret Service practices surveillance over humans had been the best inspiration for the creators of this movie since this entity has characterized several years ago by the reputation of keeping the world under control troughout spying practices.  For these days (as in the past... and it will be in the future), the polemic about the Government tactics to invade the privacy of people has released the discussion about United Sates as "The Country of the Liberty” once again. The question is will it have a possible solution? On the one hand, there is a background of terrorism attacks and threats which could justify to some extent these intromissions avoiding future possible attacks against The U.S. system and people. On the other hand, is stated the polemic about how “the paranoid”, which has become in a kind of illness truly contagious have infected other instances from The U.S. (especially companies). In my opinion, regardless the cause, the answer is the “Big brother”[2]  practices will continue infecting society, not only in The U.S. but over the whole world.[3]
After the fatidic attacks upon the world trade center at 9/11/01, all The United States was vulnerable. The Government Intelligence Services (The Pentagon) failed in its task to protect the integrity of its nation. Thus, the main learning lesson (undoubtedly) was increased intelligence tactics and procedures of surveillance. In that way the “Big Brother” practices -spying procedures- were considered as an effective tool approved for The Government to weed out whatever sign of terrorism and destroy it, regardless what they needed to do for getting it to protect the country and their people, even going against constitutional rights of privacy and liberty, to preserve “the liberty”. This is may be a great paradox whose complexity is not easy to understand, but for governments or mechanisms of power[4] is really useful to keep propagating this illness. 
Therefore, the background of terrorism attacks and threats which has had The United States, might be a good reason to be paranoid about the possibility of dangerous attacks everywhere (mostly for The Government) and this somatic marker seems to have infected a considerable range of entities which are investing and using technology to spying on people. One example could be the discographic firms. If you download a song -without pay- using one of these open source softwares you can find surfing online, it is possible you receive a legal threat from one of those companies. In addition, could be a considerable amount of companies –including universities- which are surveilling on their people digging into their emails, callings, etc[5]. That is such an additional considerable hint propelled by this contagious effect.

The reality is we all are being watched by the whole system through “agents”, that are not only from governments but from different instances, and our privacy and liberty seem to be an illusion as in “The Matrix”. This surveillance situation won´t has a closely solution since we started to be infected at the time we enter to be part of “the system”, or to be part of this kind of Matrix which is not fictitious. That is the reason why intrusions in the existence of others, distrust and need for control, have been  convened upon the setting up of our human nature… If you had a ring with the power of making yourself invisible, what would you like to do?





[1] One of the most iconic Sci –Fi films from the end of the last century (1999).
[2] The George Orwell’s Novel - 1984
[3] It is important clarify this problem is not only related to U.S., many governments could have the same illness
[4] This type of excuse doesn’t apply only for U.S. Government.
[5] There are several cases which support this affirmation…do the exercise to find some surfing the web (ask to Google).

What is Sustainability?

By Juan Sebastián Cárdenas Salas

Source: Google

When Saint Francis of Assisi praised God both through The Brothers Sun and Fire, The Sisters Moon and Water, The Mother Earth, and even The Sister Death, He was thinking in a sustainable way. This thought further than a religious frame is a simple way to understand the complexity of sustainability from several factors of life. Sustainability is living every day with both self awareness and of others -the hardest part-. That “other” is an integral being, a “whole” where we all are sharing together. It could be family, corporation, country, planet, etc. Sustainability is collective thinking and action for evolution of a particular system.

Those who were touched by The Matrix, probably remember the scene when Neo can clearly see the code -the substance- from this unreal environment and thus gets over his enemy, Agent Smith, the conscience barrier. Something similar is what we should get if we truly want to live in a sustainable system which is not an easy way yet neither impossible.