The post below is a copy of a letter I wrote in response to a "commentary" by Fareed Zakaria in Time Magazine's February 3rd issue. the subject was government surveillance, and Zakaria attempted to justify the recent extremes in such practices, at least to some degree, by using hyperbolic and somewhat dubious statistics in a context designed to incite a certain amount of fear in less discerning readers. The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA, or HUAC) would have been proud of this broadly-brushed-through-a-bullhorn approach to Chicken-Littleism. For my part however, I felt compelled to point out that the sloppiness of the argument and its hysteria-driven 'facts, were perfunctory even by the standards of Time Magazine--who, in many cases, tend towards over-generalization and broad-brush social-reductionism. This is surprising, not because Zakaria--who is Time Magazine's "Editor-at-Large"--is usually more sober (although this is an imaginative screed in comparison with his usual passionately-middle-of-the-road, didactism), but because he at least attempts to pay obligatory lip service to the opposite side of the coin. Of course, given the multifaceted nuances of most arguments, this dichotomizing--so popular in the media since the advent of the 'Fairness Doctrine'--is not entirely accurate, although it frames certain political rants in a deceptively 'objective' way. In this case, however, he simply threw caution to the winds of authoritarianism, and dove into the arms of the NSA with both arms open...I hope this isn't the beginning of a new revisionist trend, especially now, as the sentiment to pardon Edward Snowden--regardless of where his 'libertarian sympathies' may actually lie--and to commute the sentence of Bradley (now, Chelsea) Manning, is beginning to pick up steam. Only time will tell.
PhlegmTurtlePalace Steward