“…or why Ed Snowden is a traitor to the U.S. economy”

But first, remember this?

It didn’t take long for Eisenhower’s speech to become a memorable, often-repeated part of our history. No, make that a part of the lexicon. Who doesn’t know his warning about the “military-industrial complex”?

Unfortunately, the warning came too late. Even though the words came from one of the architects of this complex, his parting admonition was lost momentarily in the glitz and glamour of his successor.

Eisenhower was old hat; Jack Kennedy didn’t wear a hat. Eisenhower had his Normandy, Kennedy had his own beach at the Bay of Pigs. Eventually history sorted them out.

Eisenhower was wise to save that warning for his exit lines. But it was unfortunate he didn’t have the nerve to name the third party in this unholy trinity: our growing security complex – complex in both senses of that word.

When our colleague Pundita sent the following essay (posted on her website), it brought to mind that farewell address. Perhaps you’ll agree after you read what she has to say:

We had to kill this republic to save it, or why Ed Snowden is a traitor to the U.S. economy

by Pundita

Hi. I’m a representative of the Economy of the United States of America. We here in the Economy operate according to a simple guiding principle that makes a lot more sense than the unnecessarily complex principles informing the obsolete U.S. Constitution. Our motto is, “Whatever creative idea you can think up, we can find a way to weaponize it and then we can find a way to commercialize it.”

The way the guiding principle works out in practice is also simple. Every time a military or commercial venture we think up meets with opposition on legal grounds we create a law that nullifies or reinterprets the earlier law.. We also stamp “Top Secret Classified” on just about everything we do in Government. This means anarchists are in violation of the Espionage Act if they try to get cute with us by claiming they’re defending an ethical principle or — my personal favorite — the U.S. Constitution or Bill of Rights.

Stop and think it through: what use are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness if you don’t have a job? What use are the amendments to an outmoded Constitution if you don’t have a job?

We here in the United States pledge allegiance to jobs and security, not a flag and the primitive republic for which it stood. We are proud Consumers, not citizens, and Government will defend to the last drop of blood of the contractors we hire your right to a job. This is so you can contribute to your retirement fund to keep Wall Street gainfully employed; so you can support the housing market to keep bankers, real estate agents and building contractors employed; so you can buy stuff and services to keep the American GDP afloat; so Government can keep borrowing enough from foreign governments to keep itself in business.

I hope all that is enough to explain why Edward Snowden is a traitor, unless you don’t know that Big Data represents big employment numbers. During an era when all the world’s major economic regions are teetering on the edge of recession, and when unemployment numbers in the U.S. are bad and a disaster in the Eurozone economies, it’s most definitely an act of sedition to cast aspersions on any industry that creates a lot of jobs. Protecting American Consumers is a big industry that represents a marriage of military and commercial enterprises, and data mining is a fast growing sector of the industry.

That’s the way things are in the Economy of the United States. If Edward Snowden refuses to accept the way things are, he’s going to be jailed after he’s caught. Rest assured he will be caught, whenever NSA can get the math right in the algorithms it uses to find its hands with a flashlight.