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  From: <jy2050@columbia.edu>
  To  : <cpc@emoglen.law.columbia.edu>
  Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 15:37:58 -0500

Paper 1: The Road Towards Fascism

The Road Towards Fascism

¡°Fascism comes to America not through the strength of reaction, but
through the weakness of the good people.¡±
The more accurate statement to describe the post 9/11 era, would be
that Fascism comes, first through the strength of reaction, then
through the weakness of the good people. An attack on US soil that
killed thousands of lives was certain to bring forth a strong
reaction. After the 9/11 terrorist attack, citizens realized that
the need for security is real and blamed the authorities for not
having been able to prevent the attack. With the mandate of the
people, Congress reacted with the Patriot Act and private data
mining companies as well as government agencies responsible for
homeland security enhanced their surveillance capability. Although
data mining has been steadily on the incline before 9/11, the
incident greatly increased the government¡¯s effort to monitor.
However, unbeknownst to or largely ignored by the population, such
measures have costs that are not clearly visible. The loss of
privacy, which might only be an inconvenience to the majority or
the few who were unlucky to be victims of identity theft, is a real
threat to the minorities and the dissenters in the country.
Moreover, in the end, everybody will suffer the consequence of the
country moving towards fascism.
Many people believe that the Patriot Act is tailored to scrutinize
people with Middle East ethnicity, and that fingerprinting in the
airport is not for all non-US citizens but for those whose stay in
the US is brief. They do not realize that people with good
reputation, who have been in the country for 20 years, are also
fingerprinted. However, as long as it doesn¡¯t happen in my
backyard, the majority is willing to allow such invasion of
privacy.
The greatest justification ¡®good people¡¯ have for allowing fascism
to run rampant, is the false belief that the authority is civilized
and wouldn¡¯t overstep the boundary of reason. The problem with
this reasoning is that the authority itself doesn¡¯t take a huge
leap beyond the acceptable norm, but slowly inch towards it. The
temptation for greater control, the ability to implement preventive
measures is so great, and shrouded with justifications such as
security, that the executive power tends to create mechanisms that
take a life of their own. In other words, fascism is the offspring
of the weakness of the people, including the weakness of the
executive power.
Such temptation is especially great for the NSA, an intelligence
agency that gathers data and provides it to other organizations
such as the CIA and the National Guard.  Under the justification of
providing information to other agencies, the NSA is trying to create
a sieve that collects as much information as possible, more than
necessary. Such a sieve can capture actions of groups such as
Greenpeace, ACLU and other civil rights groups and even though
other agencies might not have spent resources on gathering such
information, once provided with the information, the temptation to
act on it is irresistible. That is the power of an out-of-proportion
sieve.
The other, and more dangerous offspring is the private data-mining
companies whose profits have grown enormously after 9/11 because
the government is willing to let the private companies gather
intelligence for them.  The private companies do not have the
limitations imposed upon federal agencies under the Privacy Act of
1974 and are therefore in a better position to gather information
about potential terrorist. However, who is to say that these
companies are not going to sell information to others for a price?
Information has value, and giving companies the ability to collect
and sell information, will create consequences that even the
government wouldn¡¯t have anticipated.
The government, in order to root out potential terrorists, also
tried to go one step further and create the Terrorism Information
and Prevention System (TIPS), a system where citizens would be able
to police one another, which sounds similar to the policing
mechanism of Nazi Germany during the Second World War. For the
improbable chance of capturing terrorists who are dumb enough to be
caught by their neighbors, the government tried to implement a
system that would have fostered distrust against one¡¯s neighbors,
against newcomers who are trying to settle down in a town, against
immigrants. This is the civility that the ¡®good people¡¯ are
putting so much faith in.
It is unfortunate that the U.S. Constitution does not contain the
word ¡®privacy¡¯ or identify it as a fundamental right. Although
case law states that the 1st, 4th, 5th and 14th Amendment all
guarantee the right of privacy , this is already an admission that
privacy can be compromised whenever the invasion is carried out
beyond the statutory reading of these amendments. Now, privacy
seems like a commodity that is willingly tradable for convenience.
For credit cards, EZPasses and high-tech security doors. The focus
of many, including the NGOs and libertarian groups, are on identity
thefts and the security of information, not on the broad effect
surveillance has on the minorities of society.
However, who is to say that one will not be a minority in the future
such as an attorney in a criminal trial proceeding or a candidate
for an unpopular minority party. Moreover, with the increased
control, we can imagine a world where everybody is affected by fear
of being monitored. People with unpopular thoughts or radical ideas
might be afraid to voice their opinion. Is this the world we want
to live in? Just as the 14th Amendment did not just bring equality
for the underprivileged but gave us all the benefit to live in a
freer society, the constitutional right of privacy will bring about
such an effect when it is clearly written in the constitution.
In the end, it is not legislation, not even constitutional amendment
that is going to curb the move towards fascism. It is the awareness
of the ¡®good people¡¯ of where this is leading and their
willingness to voice opposition that will stop it.


Paper1, The Road Towards Fascism.doc
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