Politics Category Archives

thoughtcrime does not entail death, thoughtcrime is death

21 July 2015 | Literature, Politics | No Comments

к слову, говоря о “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, можно вспомнить, что относительно недавно тот самый Пинчон написал хорошее эссе на эту тему:

Our nominally free news media are required to present “balanced” coverage, in which every “truth” is immediately neutered by an equal and opposite one. Every day public opinion is the target of rewritten history, official amnesia and outright lying, all of which is benevolently termed “spin,” as if it were no more harmful than a ride on a merry-go- round. We know better than what they tell us, yet hope otherwise. We believe and doubt at the same time – it seems a condition of political thought in a modern superstate to be permanently of at least two minds on most issues. Needless to say, this is of inestimable use to those in power who wish to remain there, preferably forever.

так насаждается doublethink, так в тумане запретов размываются ориентиры, так скорректированное прошлое корректирует настоящее:

The interests of the regime in Oceania lie in the exercise of power for its own sake, in its unrelenting war on memory, desire, and language as a vehicle of thought. Memory is relatively easy to deal with, from the totalitarian point of view. There is always some agency like the Ministry of Truth to deny the memories of others, to rewrite the past. It has become a commonplace, circa 2003, for government employees to be paid more than most of the rest of us to debase history, trivialise truth and annihilate the past on a daily basis. Those who don’t learn from history used to have to relive it, but only until those in power could find a way to convince everybody, including themselves, that history never happened, or happened in a way best serving their own purposes – or best of all that it doesn’t matter anyway, except as some dumbed-down TV documentary cobbled together for an hour’s entertainment.

for if nothing is true, then anything is possible.

  

eat this!

19 July 2015 | Jurisprudence, Politics, Privacy | No Comments

наконец-то дошло:

Surveillance legislation the government considered “vital” and rushed through parliament last year has been struck down by the High Court.

The Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act, which compels telecoms providers to retain user data for 12 months and make it available to public bodies, was inconsistent with European law, the court ruled.

  

to make the market safer

16 July 2015 | Censorship, Internet, Jurisprudence, Politics | No Comments

скажем, так:

The UK’s porn filters could be made illegal under a proposed EU law heading for a vote in the European Parliament this autumn.

The law takes aim at roaming charges but it will have far-reaching implications for net neutrality and the UK’s adult content filters introduced in July 2013, say legal experts.

It boils down to the fact that “if you’re a German customer who wants specific content, you should be able to access it in the UK as well”, said Denis Keseris, a patent attorney who specialises in information and communications technology as a partner at the firm Withers & Rogers.

Approved on 30 June, the Single Telecoms Market law marks the end of mobile phone providers’ roaming charges throughout the EU from June 2017 onward. The new laws will also “enshrine the principle of net neutrality into EU law”. That means “no blocking or throttling of online content, applications and services”.

по-крайней мере, будет отличный повод для исков.

  

V for Vendetta

14 July 2015 | Politics, Privacy, Security | 3 Comments

в Германии не лучше:

The president of the German domestic secret service has filed criminal charges with the public prosecutor because of two of our (netzpolitik.org — me) articles. The accusation: leaking state secrets. We have learned that from a brodcast on public broadcasting radio station Deutschlandfunk on Saturday.

The investigation’s cause are the articles „mass data processing of the Internet’s content“ and „a new unit for expanding internet surveillance“ executed by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution whereof we had reported with the aid of the original documents.

We have reported on this matter because we deem it necessary to start a social debate. Two years after after Snowden’s revelations, the Federal Government has no better ideas than spending more and more money and responsibilities on largely uncontrolled secret services instead of ensuring a better control of secret services and reducing the system of total surveillance.

  

do you keep a list of things you might be responsible for?

10 July 2015 | Lifeform, Literature, Politics | No Comments

а, кстати, да, Уильям Гибсон все о том же:

Russia seems currently intent on becoming very much what I imagined the USSR to be in Neuromancer. Just not called USSR.

  

on lunatics

10 July 2015 | Economics, Politics | 1 Comment

похоже, Греция таки согласна на все. ну, да зато поголосовали и повеселились, правда?

плюс, вот еще и пламенная речь отличного Ги Верхофстадта за два дня до этого.

  

pattern recognition

8 July 2015 | Literature, Personal, Politics | 3 Comments

вот оно, забвение, прыжок с головой в наступающие волны:

Where was anybody that summer before the War? Dreaming. The spas that summer, the summer Ensign Morituri came to Bad Karma, were crowded with sleepwalkers. Nothing for him to do at the Embassy. They suggested a holiday till September. He should have known something was up, but he only went on holiday to Bad Karma — spent the days drinking Pilsener Urquelle in the cafe by the lake in the Pavilion Park. He was a stranger, half the time drunk, silly beer-drunk, and he hardly spoke their language. But what he saw must have been going on all over Germany. A premeditated frenzy.

где-то на подступах к космической стелле, забытому подарку канувшей в лету страны, где-то в бюрократической столовой между заседаниями, где-то с пиджаком под головой, лежа на скамейке, где-то чуть ниже, за оградой, опять среди людей, в стандартном ирландском пабе с обязательными русскими официантками — я помню это ощущение исключительно хорошо: жаркие дни летних сессий, озеро, играющее меж барашков-гор дельфином, густой французский туман непонятных слов — и легкая похмельная истома, да коридоры и закулисы, разбитые на такие очевидные сегодня кусочки мозаики.

Женева, удивительная замочная скважина наружу в мир — все давно уже расставлено по местам, точно верные солдатики: и люди в мундирах, было замаскированные под делегации, и пустые усмешки, и мимолетные шепотки по серым углам с бокалом, пожимания плечами, объяснения на пальцах, предостережения — и обязательное “ну, ты же понимаешь”.

преднамеренное безумие, что неизменно выглядывало раньше краешком то здесь, то там, наконец расцвело год назад и дало плоды. и, точно прежде, чья-то скучная игра опять мешает нам жить.

  

метадата и все-все-все

5 July 2015 | Internet, Jurisprudence, Politics, Privacy | 1 Comment

еще одно королевство, кстати:

Dutch intel bill proposes non-specific (‘bulk’) interception powers for “any form of telecom or data transfer”, incl. domestic, plus required cooperation from “providers of communication services”.

so it goes.

  

war is peace

12 June 2015 | Economics, Lifeform, Literature, Politics | 1 Comment

все мы знаем, что Оруэлл написал гениальную книгу. но, тем не менее, часто забываем, насколько именно гениальную:

It does not matter whether the war is actually happening, and, since no decisive victory is possible, it does not matter whether the war is going well or badly. All that is needed is that a state of war should exist. The splitting of the intelligence which the Party requires of its members, and which is more easily achieved in an atmosphere of war, is now almost universal, but the higher up the ranks one goes, the more marked it becomes. It is precisely in the Inner Party that war hysteria and hatred of the enemy are strongest. In his capacity as an administrator, it is often necessary for a member of the Inner Party to know that this or that item of war news is untruthful, and he may often be aware that the entire war is spurious and is either not happening or is being waged for purposes quite other than the declared ones: but such knowledge is easily neutralized by the technique of doublethink.

эта цитата с легкостью обозначает одно из государств из стран на сегодняшнем глобусе. а вот другая сторона, не лучше:

The problem was how to keep the wheels of industry turning without increasing the real wealth of the world. Goods must be produced, but they need not be distributed. And in practice the only way of achieving this was by continuous warfare.

так есть:

The object of waging a war is always to be in a better position in which to wage another war.

  

утро красит нежным светом стены древнего Кремля

21 May 2015 | Culturology, Politics, Privacy, Security | No Comments

к слову о Старших братьях:

The Center for Research in Legitimacy and Political Protest claims to have developed software that will search Russian social media posts for signs of plans by political opposition to the government to stage unapproved protests or meetings. Described by an Izvestia report as “a system to prevent mass disorder,” the software searches through social media posts once every five minutes to catch hints of “unauthorized actions” and potentially alert law enforcement to prevent them.

кто в космос, кто по грибы, а кто — и дальше трястись в извечном страхе за свою мерзкую шкуру.