America is not without a class system.
Sure, maybe we don't have Brahman and Dalit, but we have something more sinister hiding in plain sight. There are those who know; and, there are those who don't. How much knowledge you have and what you know helps determine your place in society. In this case of Edward Snowden, the government is trying to flex its bourgeois muscle, but not just for the sake of it. You see, if we keep our eyes on this event, then the rest of us will never wake up to the truth that we are all prisoners in the Matrix. The space we currently inhabit in light of the present events, including WikiLeaks and the Occupy Wall Street movement, is one of sociological Inception. Remember that movie? The one where Leonardo Dicaprio looks like he is trying to grow facial hair. The whole corpus of the movie is centered around one thing: memories. What are memories if not forms of repressed knowledge? There is one scene where the whole of reality collapses in on itself. Knowledge does that when its repressed, it suspends reality as we know it. Is this not what the U.S. government has done with the age of information-leaks? Are they not in some modernist fashion attempting to maintain some nostalgic American image? Nostalgia enslaves to a time, not when things were perfect, but to a time when we weren't as evolved as we are now. The government is implying they don't like forward motion when they spend all their energy into flexing their bureaucratic muscle trying to put fear into the heart of the American population.
In the current Information Age, knowledge has become the trading commodity par excellence. Since the inception of the Internet, information has become viral. Knowledge has superseded the categorical imperative [there is no you, I, him or her because knowledge is what defines us now], and yet has enslaved more people to the decaying experiment we call democracy. Democracy is dead. Is not democracy intrinsically concerned about equal representation? But if one system is in control of an unlimited amount of knowledge, doesn't this in and of itself negate all that the democratic experiment stands for? Political philosopher, "Karl Popper defined democracy in contrast to dictatorship or tyranny, thus focusing on opportunities for the people to control their leaders and to oust them without the need for a revolution"[1]. One thing is for sure, with the precipitous emergence of Occupy Wall Street, WikiLeaks, and now the NSA fiasco with patriot[2] Edward Snowden, the democratic experiment has been pushed under the bus. There is no longer representation, only representation through control, fear and a form of patriarchal domination. In direct disagreement with Karl Popper, this is clearly time for a revolution.
In the instance of knowledge being that which transcends human value, this NSA event is one prime example. How so? First things first, let tackle a working definition of knowledge, which is almost impossible. But for the sake of discussion, let's define it simply. Could we say, it is a claim about a person, a place, or a thing -- a claim, an idea that seeks to make itself objective. When something is made into an objective, it is then over that which is subjective.
If someone says, that 'this is truth,' then they are seeking to make it objective. A standard of truth, so to speak. So, in the case of the CIA, who is generally known to be hiding much more than Snowden cared to leak, is seeking to be the truth-bearer and then in-turn make Snowden and by implication, the rest of the American people -- slaves to their objective views on knowledge. This is where representation goes down the drain, there is none. The CIA does not care about representation at this point, they only desire to conceal what they think is important. The government is then attempting to withhold knowledge thereby making us slaves to their knowledge.
What is the CIA ultimately claiming about the American people if they seek to withhold pertinent information from the American people [about the American people], or any government, for that matter? We can easily assess, that our governments think then that we are emphatically stupid. That we are incapable of using knowledge. That it's better not to know. That appearances are much more important. Does not knowing also imply a form of identity? Meaning, that we know who we are because we have knowledge of who we are. Which also implies history. There is value to knowing things about ourselves as we develop as a people and a nation. In this sense, government agencies that hide knowledge from the American people thwart American progress and identity; not to mention individual identity. Very much like Jason Bourne, the America wants to get rid of those people who are a threat to this ominous 'unknown' thing called 'national security'. If we were so secure, why would they need to hide it?
Much like the insistence of Nora who walks out on Torvald, the time for resolve is now; it is imperative for the American people to be equally decisive. That to assert our freedom is to embrace a feminist ethic in a country still entrenched in its own masculine gaze. Yes, I am making the implication that these behemoth machines we call governments are against the American people. The modernist project of a top-down model of leadership is a bit tired and worn out. We are in need of new models. Of new ways of doing things. If anything, these embryonic events have shown us that something is intrinsically wrong with the government. That the system is corrupt. That we need more revolutionaries.
Why is the CIA fighting for Snowden's return? Because it knows it's becoming obsolete. Why else fight? For most, this approach somehow automatically assumes that some form of anarchy or failed Marxist communism is the only option. Why don't we petition for a third pill? Why does it have to be all that we have? If anything, Snowden, Assange, and the village of global occupiers don't believe this to be true, why do we? It's time to rise up, change the way we do things. Let's prove history wrong, knowledge is not power and our future is unwritten. We are the American people and this is just the beginning. The reality is, that this article will just be another Op-ed in a newspaper. And you know what, that's what they want. If that's all we leave this as, and we do nothing else, then they have won, and Snowden's attempts at waking us up will fall into historical obscurity. Viva La Revolucion?!
[1] Jarvie, 2006, pp. 218-9
[2] I employ the word patriot purposefully to imply that his act was more concerned for the general population of America then some Illuminati-like government trying to hide things under the guise of 'protection.'