> not much protest has been done

> surveillance is close to the bottom of the priority list...

These are directly related. Surveillance causes chilling effects.

Sure, but so does apathy. Another approach would be to encourage apathy by legalizing pot. Oh...

Astute observation. The people are essentially being pacified with an ensemble of token gesture legislative palliatives and morale-sapping sedatives.

That one has always felt suspicious to me too ...

You're right; there are certainly worse things happening which deserves our full attention and reaction. But perhaps this type of "surveillance state", or the general loss of civil liberties is a key to eroding everything else to its core. In a true "surveillance state", anything is easy to rig for those controlling it...

I’ve seen lots of protesting over the last decade. The strange thing is that it never, ever amounts to anything other than completely trivial placation in the US. It seems like the Europeans are willing to burn their cities down to get something they want every few years, but they often end up getting it. Here, we can have a summer of rage and nothing happens. It spirals into minutia about whether it’s federal, state, or local changes. Some national programs or studies may happen, maybe a few local changes happen, but overall things go on as before. I can’t imagine an actual grass-roots challenge to something like constant domestic surveillance actually having any effect, because I’ve never seen it.

People react, but their reaction is channeled into a false dichotomy. What the elites learned from 1984 etc. is that you do need to provide an enemy for the people, but the people are not united; so you need to provide two enemies, each of which is a champion of one side and a foe for the other, and then let the spectre of this false choice become the defining characteristic of people's identity.

Witness it in the people who hate Trump or Clinton or Biden or anyone else that is put forward: you can divide an entire country on it right down the middle, and meanwhile their policies in reality (not policy positions! implementations!) are basically indistinguishable. The same thing would happen regardless of who is elected, for the most part, because the election is a show, a pressure release valve to make people think they've done something.

Even now we have people who think that electing Biden will help solve the problems you've pointed out. People ostensibly on the Left are mad about four years of rhetoric that has been riling them up, and have pulled the lever for "change" to resolve this. And yes, you will _hear_ less about blacks being shot by police for four years - that's part of the strategy, which the media cooperates / coordinates with. The actual number of incidents may not change... Instead, it will be time for news stories and events which angry up the Right for a few years, again forcing them to direct their resources and energy at fighting some spectre that won't change anything instead of directing their efforts inward to truly root out corruption and decay.

There is no protest. Protests are just the establishment throwing a different sort of parade, celebrating their power by demonstrating what they can allow to happen without facing any consequences themselves. Go ahead, yell in the street, burn down a city - nothing changes because nobody is listening and your actions ultimately only hurt people lower down the chain.

Surveillance did not stop the summer of Antifa and BLM rioting. It will not stop a summer of redneck riots if that's in the cards either. Surveillance probably does stop people who actually stand some chance of causing real change; but if that is a functional, working thing, you won't hear a word about it.

Everything's to the point except it wasn't Orwell who taught elites proper sheepherding. They've been doing it throughout all the known history.

Good point, yes. 1984 just gives us that crystal clear image of everyone hating Goldstein - whereas in this reality half the people hate Goldstein and the other half hate Steingold (or whatever you'd put in as a convenient narrative opposite, not intending to reflect any individuals in reality) and neither of them realizes that their hate should be focused on Big Brother himself.

(A quick google shows me that Steingold is famous for bagels, and nobody hates bagels)

What is teaching if not summing up history in a concise presentation :-)

And marx taught us about false consciousness.

That's a very bleak outlook. I hope you are wrong, but fear you are right.

I hope I am wrong too. It is bleak! It might be the six months of grey rain that I'm looking at out the window, it might be a year of heavy burden bearing down on me, or it might just be a heroic dose of Depressive Realism.

You are not wrong. I came across this poem in the Chinese Book of Songs. It is an acknowledgement of everything wrong happening around us, and over which we have no control; a way to keep your sanity and function. Something akin to rational anarchy.

Don't escort the big chariot; You will only make yourself dusty. Don't think about the sorrows of the world; You will only think yourself wretched.

Don't escort the big chariot; You won't be able to see for dust. Don't think about the sorrows of the world; Or you will never escape from your despair.

Don't escort the big chariot; You'll be stifled with dust. Don't think about the sorrows of the world; You will only load yourself with care.

Thanks for that. It's always good to be mindful that this is hardly the first or the last time that this will happen to me or anyone else :-)

Sometimes things have to get quite bad before enough incentive to fix them appears.