Not all questions are created equal, as President Dwight D. Eisenhower discovered. Throughout much of his presidency, he often felt sidelined and alienated by bureaucratic and entrenched foreign policy makers in and around Washington DC. Still, he was determined to make the most of his remaining time in office, to somehow try and lay the foundations for a future world that would no longer experience militarism and war. One major concern was dealing with those who worshipped the armed services. They distrusted anything that appeared to be open and direct, chased after all kinds of conspiracy theories, and always viewed the world as a convoluted place where the United States must take provocative and aggressive actions. Towards the end of his presidency he once asked them: I think you know that I believe we must be strong militarily, but beyond what point does military strength become a national weakness?(1) On the same day President Eisenhower delivered his Military-Industrial Complex Speech, (January 17, 1961), President Barack Obama will address the nation about the National Security Agencys abuse of powers. The NSA employs high-tech surveillance dragnets and warrantless eavesdropping devices involving the largest, most powerful telecom corporations to collect personal and private data. It stores the data and uses it to develop new software to secretly manipulate all kinds of social media sites by using fake online personas, so as to start fake Internet conversations and spread propaganda.(2) As the NSA pollutes public information, corporations are monitoring and manipulating internet consumers by controlling advertisements and the speed of search engines. Therefore, did President Obama also ask: ...beyond what point does the NSAs data mining and collection of personal information become a national weakness? Democracy is jeopardized when questions are never asked. The right kinds of questions can challenge destructive, status quo, institutionalized realities, forging a more vital reality and world. But questions are also risky, especially evaluative ones that deal with the concepts of time, place, and accountability. President Eisenhower understood this and was why the answer to his question was to warn of a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties.(3) Such costly actions-conflicts and wars-would be driven by a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions, propagated by those who acquire unwarranted influence through the military-industrial complex. Reflecting back over his presidency when dealing with those addicted to the armed forces and militarism, he knew the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.(4) Questions are always critical to the survival of democracy, and the kind of questions asked determines the quality of the answer. Will President Obama, then, also warn fellow citizens of a permanent info-armament industry of vast proportions? Will he caution of an internet-industrial complex that is always listening, watching, propagating, manipulating, and social engineering behavior? And will he speak of a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to society, mainly total information awareness systems that divest individuals of their privacy and humanity, controlling and enslaving the human mind and spirit? As President Eisenhower mentioned in his speech, forewarning of how democracy might become an insolvent phantom, Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.(5) The Founding Fathers also asked questions. They asked why they were not fairly represented, why their personal belongings were being seized, and why their rights and their freedoms of expression were being denied by a tyrannical government, or a select group of nobles and a king who thought they knew best. Through questioning, they were able to see more clearly a world of contradictions and destructive institutions that discounted their own realities and experiences. The Committees of Correspondence asked the whys, and physical protests and boycotts ensued. Thomas Paines pamphlet Common Sense asked the whens, and the answer was: Now is the time...We have it within our power to begin the world over again. The Declaration of Independence answered the wherefore questions. But then questions can only be powerful when they are acted upon and lived. Dallas Darling (darling@wn) @article.wn/view/2014/01/17/Did_Obama_Ask_the_Same_Question_as_Eisenhower/#/fullarticle
Posted on: Sat, 18 Jan 2014 22:18:07 +0000
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