Bowe Bergdahl and Mercy

How horrified are we by canniballism? One of the most profound taboos in our society is eating another person. So can that act be forgiven? There is a famous court case in the mid-1880’s in Britain dealing with the survivors of a shipwreck. In this case some surviving members of the crew, adrift on a lifeboat killed a terminally ill member of the crew to eat him and drink his blood. They were convicted of murder, but there sentences were commuted from execution to a short term of imprisonment. The idea was that in unusual and extreme circumstances the survivors had to do something generally considered horrible, but that in any case they had already been punished by their horrific ordeal.

Bowe Bergdahl did something incredibly stupid when he ran away from his base and was captured by the Taliban. I understand the anger of his comrades who were exposed to increased danger but it seems clear that he should not be punished further. While not a perfect analogy, Bowe Bergdahl did something terrible but he also suffered terribly at the hands of his captors. It would be proper in his case to say, “He has already suffered enough.”

On the Legitimacy of NSA Spying

Over the last three years the almost unbelievable level of communications interception by the NSA has been revealed largely through the Snowden leaks. They have revealed many threats to the principles of limited government, notably in domestic eavesdropping and in collusion with other domestic policing agencies (see DEA and “parallel construction”). While these are grave matters that have gotten ahead of the law’s ability to regulate and present novel and particularly frightening invasions of privacy and deserve to have a national conversation exploring them, not all of the activities of the NSA are illegitimate.

Spying on foreign leaders, especially those of our allies, has been excoriated in our press and in foreign countries. But this is truly an activity within the scope of the NSA’s mission. While it can be argued that it is foolish and a waste of resources, I believe it is legitimate as long as the information is not passed to private companies for commercial gain. The myth of a brotherhood of nations is a dangerous fairy tale. The US has strong allies, but even those allies don’t have interests that strictly align with ours all the time. While foreign policy should not be conducted in a completely ruthless and amoral manner, it should be conducted with a level of self-interest. Spying is therefore a critical task that every nation which is capable engages in, even on their allies.

Technology and Voyeurism

One marked social effect of changing technology has been to distort the human experience of observing one another. It is now easier than ever to peek into people’s private lives and to experience a wide range of emotions and obtain a good deal of pleasure or entertainment while doing so. One effect of this is to increase the sense of superficiality that permeates modern life. We are all being surveilled all the time by not just corporations and the state, but by each other, and we project ourselves accordingly.

We may, before a first date (if we didn’t find our potential partner online), Google someone to perform a brief background check. This manifestation of our voyeurism can be potentially destructive but is perhaps the least dangerous aspect of this modern process. Voyeurism tends to cause fetishism. People are reduced to objects and ownership of these objects can be conferred on the viewer. This is why dating sites and apps like Tinder are problematic for society. They reduce our empathy and our view of people as unique and deserving.

Outside of personal relationships there is the baser parts of life that are now in full consciousness for the first time in human history. The modern era has shown an ever increasing incongruity between the public acceptance of sex and violence and the private ability of people to view it. Pornography and filmed violence permeate the internet. The discord between public and private life, and the increased scope of public life, are also damaging to society. A society that looks on death and sex as taboo in public, but as mundane in private, is bound to develop a shame complex, as well as dehumanizing the participants and victims of sex and violence respectively.

One example that vindicates the mass-development of shame, which is caused by the public revelation of private embarrassment, is the proliferation of cringe-comedy in documentary or first-person style. It enables a catharsis for people to experience vicariously, and voyeuristically, other people’s shame.

The long-term effects of shame and dehumanization cannot be good for the public health of society, and it may be a primary cause of increased anxiety, depression, and mental illness, as well as feeding sexual deviancy.

New York State and democracy

To any close observer of the political process in Albany it is apparent that New York gets stuff done. Under the leadership of Andrew Cuomo legislation is passed, deals get done, problems are addressed, and the state runs smoothly. The other side of this is that New York State is run in an undemocratic fashion and for the exclusive benefit of elected officials and their benefactors. Personal vendettas and political payoffs drive policy and many concerned voices are stifled and silenced. The passage of the budget this year is a prime example. Three men conducted all the negotiations and there was no time for the legislation to be made public before the votes. Anti-corruption measures were not passed, despite the state legislature’s recent and frequent transgressions. In the larger sense of American political life it would seem that the citizens have an unfortunate choice: either accept gridlock and divisive politics, or submit to dictatorial and corrupt public governance. What are voters supposed to do?