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Disclosure of truth as endangering lives


Would Jesus Now be Prosecuted by US? (Part #8)

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External enemies of US: Increasingly, the worldwide war against terrorism of the US is framed in terms of the principle: You're either with us, or against us. As discussed separate (Us and Them: Relating to Challenging Others, 2009), The principle has been widely used to frame the existence of enemies requiring appropriate response, most ironically in the Bible itself:

With respect to the Manning-Assange-Snowden cases, the claim is made that disclosure of classified information endangers (American) lives -- aiding and abetting the enemy. The implication is that secret information ensures competitive advantage (for "us"), even when the information is concealed from the electors and their directly elected representatives charged with democratic oversight responsibilities -- despite the unexplored challenges, separately discussed (Simulation of consequences and possibilities of cognitive engagement, 2013).

Internal enemies of US: This raises the question as to whether "with us" is interpreted to mean "with appropriate security clearance" -- whilst "lower security clearance" then necessarily implies "against us". This could be understood as implying that those without adequate clearance are to be assumed to be the enemies of effective central government in any democratic system.

More generally the principle raises the question of the extent to which the "opposition" to government in any elected assembly is to be considered as "the enemy" -- namely "with the terrorists", as so clearly stated by George Bush. Does this principle play out dangerously in other arenas of strategic consultation where a variety of opinions is vital -- notably in the form of "negative feedback", as required for adequate control of a complex system (in cybernetic terms)?

Cultivation of "yes-men": To what extent are lives endangered by absence of negative feedback contrary to received wisdom? (cf. 'Yes-men' culture jeopardizes corporate governance, The Asahi Shimbun, 6 July 2013). Is it in effect an argument for government by "yes men" and women -- as is the primary characteristic of many dictatorships? (Rob Asghar, How Yes Men Can Ruin You: Leadership Lessons From a Pakistani Dictator, Forbes, 19 April 2013; Erica Frantz and Natasha M. Ezrow, 'Yes Men' and the Likelihood of Foreign Policy Mistakes Across Dictatorships, APSA 2009). The issue arose with respect to the so-called "intelligence failure" with respect to 9/11 (Groupthink: the Search for Archaeoraptor as a Metaphoric Tale -- missing the link between "freedom fighters" and "terrorists", 2002).

The above confrontation of the "with us / against us" version of Jesus with that of Bush and Clinton helps to reinforce a vital distinction. That of Bush/Clinton is inherently divisive -- aside from any deliberate conflation of "us" and "US". It implies adherence to the explicit pattern articulated by the US worldview -- as embodied in its pattern of laws to which appeal is constantly made in unquestionable justification of every US aberration of human rights. In this way "human lives", if not American lives", are repeatedly endangered. That of Jesus (Matthew 12:30) implies a form of existential transcendence potentially consistent with understandings of a subtlety implied by the physicists' quest for a Theory of Everything: Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. In current language (as noted above) there is a mystery to the nature of the identity of that "me" -- a mystery beyond the scope of the Bush/Clinton framework.

Given the distinction , it is somewhat extraordinary to note extensive debate on the relation between God and "Yes Men" (Shlomo Riskin, Parashat Noah: God doesn't want yes-men, Jerusalem Post, 30 October 2008; Tito Edwards, Can All be saved?, God's Men vs. Yes Men: a model for Catholic Colleges, and much more! National Catholic Register, 26 October 2011; Todd Strandberg, God's Yes Men, Rapture Ready; Christian Mathis, God's Men Versus the Yes Men, Blessed is the Kingdom, 25 October 2011).

US framing of itself as the enemy: As a failure of both transcendence and any engagement with the future challenges of comprehension (indicated above by Sascha Vongehr), the USA effectively frames itself as a primary instigator of "scattering" -- as the enemy which so many perceive it to be. The reliance on lack of transparency, and on secrecy of the highest order, constitutes a form of mystification long characteristic of religion and of the military-industrial complex of which President Eisenhower so famously warned.

The sanctum sanctorum of religions, accessible only to high priesthood, is strangely echoed in the case of the USA by the secretive NSA complexes of Bluffdale and Fort Meade, as documented by James Bamford (The Black Box: inside America's massive new surveillance centre, Wired, April 2012) ; The Secret War, Wired, 12 June 2013). Given the accumulation of truth concerning everyone (in the first) and the possibility of retribution against everyone individually (from the second), are these the functional equivalent of the Temple of Jerusalem -- perhaps constituting a "third temple" dedicated to the security of the US alone in recognition of its Manifest Destiny? What might become the requisite rituals of "worship", now that the existence of these "temples" has been revealed?

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