Hypocrisy Is Grand

 Hypocrisy is fun stuff. “Do as I say, not as I do” tells a lot about the person saying it. From parents telling their kids not to do drugs—with a glass of wine in one hand, cigarette in the other—to Hollywood royalty talking about the evils of capitalism and our vile consumer society—after stepping out of their Ferrari or Mercedes in front of their 10,000 square foot mansion—there are always those wanting us to change our behavior to suit their opinions of how things should be.

While most hypocrisies are illustrative of a somewhat defective sense of fair play, they aren’t very important, as they affect relatively small numbers of people. Than what is? How about blatant hypocrisy among those who create policy, who create the laws and regulations that control every aspect of our lives?

There are many, many examples among today’s Ruling Elite. Today we have:

Dianne Feinstein.

For those unfamiliar with the senior senator from California, Senator Feinstein chairs the powerful Senate Intelligence Committee.  She has denigrated Edward Snowden as a traitor for blowing the whistle on massive spying on private citizens by US intelligence agencies, and continues to back the gathering of data on people around the world (though, it seems, primarily in America), using the excuse that it is ‘a means of securing our country against terrorism’.  When data gathering on innocent Americans has been criticized, Sen. Feinstein continually supports the alleged—but nowhere in the Constitution delineated—‘right’ of the US government to spy on its citizens as being more important than rights that actually are enumerated in the Bill of Rights.

Recently, US District Court Judge Richard Leon decided against continued NSA spying, warning of its “almost Orwellian” nature.  What? How could government agencies monitoring phone calls, texts, emails, and citizens’ movement by means of cell phone tracking, traffic camera monitoring, and GPS tracking without any court warrants possibly be deemed “Orwellian”?

Sen. Feinstein stated that Judge Leon was wrong to have an opinion different than some other court judges who had ruled in favor of continued and continuous violation of the Fourth Amendment by Big Brother…sorry…The NSA and other Federal agencies.  She further said that only the Supreme Court could decide that spying on innocent people was wrong or unconstitutional. 

That was then. This is now:

Headlines from March 11, 2014:

Feinstein publicly accuses CIA of spying on Senate computers

Sen. Feinstein Rips CIA: Spying on Congressional Staffers May Have Violated Constitution

There are more, but you get the idea.

Essentially, what the good Senator is saying is: “we can spy on you for the good of the nation, to protect you from yourselves, or pretty much any reason we want. But spying on US is a clear violation of OUR rights“.

Thus, we are provided with a brief glance into the mind of a powerful hypocrite who appears to firmly believe that absolute control over its citizens should be the goal of American policy. Make no mistake; this is not Orwellian, in the meaning noted by Judge Leon. Judge Leon was referring to Orwell’s sadly prophetic book, 1984, in which everyone, from the top of the Inner Party on down, was subject to continuous surveillance.  Senator Feinstein wants to watch everything we say and do, but she wants to be allowed to do whatever she wants without oversight, without question, without anyone being the wiser.  What’s good for the peasants is not good enough for members of the Inner Party. Wait, no. That’s 1984 again.  This is closer to reality: What’s good for the subjects is not good enough for members of the Ruling Elite.

But Sen. Feinstein’s attitude actually is Orwellian after all, just not from 1984.  Paraphrased from the pigs in Orwell’s Animal Farm: “All people are created equal, but some are more equal than others.”