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Sto caricando le informazioni... Citizen Spies: The Long Rise of America's Surveillance Societydi Joshua Reeves
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The history of recruiting citizens to spy on each other in the United States. Ever since the revelations of whistleblower Edward Snowden, we think about surveillance as the data-tracking digital technologies used by the likes of Google, the National Security Administration, and the military. But in reality, the state and allied institutions have a much longer history of using everyday citizens to spy and inform on their peers. Citizen Spies shows how If You See Something, Say Something is more than just a new homeland security program; it has been an essential civic responsibility throughout the history of the United States. From the town crier of Colonial America to the recruitment of youth through junior police, to the rise of Neighborhood Watch, AMBER Alerts, and Emergency 9-1-1, Joshua Reeves explores how ordinary citizens have been taught to carry out surveillance on their peers. Emphasizing the role humans play as seeing and saying subjects, he demonstrates how American society has continuously fostered cultures of vigilance, suspicion, meddling, snooping, and snitching. Tracing the evolution of police crowd-sourcing from Hue and Cry posters and Americas Most Wanted to police-affiliated social media, as well as the U.S.s recurrent anxieties about political dissidents and ethnic minorities from the Red Scare to the War on Terror, Reeves teases outhow vigilance toward neighbors has long been aligned with American ideals of patriotic and moral duty. Taking the long view of the history of the citizen spy, this book offers a much-needed perspective for those interested in how we arrived at our current moment in surveillance culture and contextualizes contemporary trends in policing.The history of recruiting citizens to spy on each other in the United States. Ever since the revelations of whistleblower Edward Snowden, we think about surveillance as the data-tracking digital technologies used by the likes of Google, the National Security Administration, and the military. But in reality, the state and allied institutions have a much longer history of using everyday citizens to spy and inform on their peers. Citizen Spies shows how If You See Something, Say Something is more than just a new homeland security program; it has been an essential civic responsibility throughout the history of the United States. From the town crier of Colonial America to the recruitment of youth through junior police, to the rise of Neighborhood Watch, AMBER Alerts, and Emergency 9-1-1, Joshua Reeves explores how ordinary citizens have been taught to carry out surveillance on their peers. Emphasizing the role humans play as seeing and saying subjects, he demonstrates how American society has continuously fostered cultures of vigilance, suspicion, meddling, snooping, and snitching. Tracing the evolution of police crowd-sourcing from Hue and Cry posters and Americas Most Wanted to police-affiliated social media, as well as the U.S.s recurrent anxieties about political dissidents and ethnic minorities from the Red Scare to the War on Terror, Reeves teases outhow vigilance toward neighbors has long been aligned with American ideals of patriotic and moral duty. Taking the long view of the history of the citizen spy, this book offers a much-needed perspective for those interested in how we arrived at our current moment in surveillance culture and contextualizes contemporary trends in policing. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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Citizen Spies is two very different books: one a failure, one a success. The failure is the bizarre restriction of the evidence Joshua Reeves allows readers to know. The success is that he uses this limited evidence to show that Americans should work to avoid being spies for the authorities.
It fails because citizen spying is demonstrably a true evil all over the world. It is a standard tool of authorities. East Germany had everyone spying on each other. China is probably the worst of the worst, as neighborhood widows are charged with spying on everyone, and denouncing anyone they please. The USA did it in the Philippines. The Nazis did it in WWII. So Reeves’ case can be proven with certainty, really easily, by looking outward. Instead, he examines a small number of (by comparison) tame American programs that debatably head in that direction. Things like Neighborhood Watch, D.A.R.E. and “If you see something, say something.” He argues the spying is worse than the poor and often negative results the programs obtain. Americans call in millions of anti-terrorism tips each year – which actually “prevent authorities from acting on them in any meaningful way”. This includes 40 alleged terrorist plots every day. Many lives have been ruined for absolutely nothing but a clue or an accusation. Just like China.
In Citizen Spies, we learn that the proper bureaucratese is “lateral surveillance initiative”. We learn that various paranoid agencies are busy instilling pointless fear. For example, for DHS, suspicious activity includes ”talking on a cell phone, using cash, or frequently checking a wristwatch.” Reeves reserves some of his most damning rhetoric for D.A.R.E., the public school program by which the police turn children into informants against their parents. Essentially brainwashing them into telling everything, they convince children they are there to help their parents if they take drugs. Police instruct them never to tell their parents they’re talking to the police because parents routinely beat children who do(!). The kids rat on their parents, whereupon they lose their jobs, go to prison, and split up the family. The state seizes all their assets, and the children can then be rotated through foster homes. A win-win by D.A.R.E. standards. D.A.R.E. has a billion dollar budget to promulgate this family values spy program.
The hypocrisy of a supposedly free people is stinging. It could be said that Edward Snowden was just following the Americans Golden Rule: if you see something, say something. 77% of Americans don’t approve of their surveillance by the government. Reeves says don’t co-operate, and leave your personal tracking device home.
David Wineberg (