The American polity is showing growing signs of a lapse into immaturity. Sobriety, accountability, responsible custodianship of the public good are the earmarks of serious\u00a0leadership in a healthy democracy. Their common denominator is honesty \u2014 intellectual, political, and \u2014 above all, to oneself in knowing who one is and why one is doing things. These traits, today, are most remarkable by their absence from the country\u2019s leadership ranks. That is true from the President on down. It encompasses not only our government officials on a bipartisan basis but a very large fraction of our political class as a whole.<\/p>\n
Behavior usually associated with (some) adolescents has become the norm. The shirking of responsibility for one\u2019s acts, a self-absorbed narcissism, the substitution of a gratifying virtual reality for an actuality that entails obligations to others and has consequences for dereliction are its hallmarks. Most disturbing, we have become so accustomed the resulting feckless conduct of our public affairs that we tacitly accept this degradation as the new normal. Therein lies the gravest danger; for it enables and encourages all those disposed to follow an indulgent path of least resistance. And that number grows steadily.<\/p>\n
The extremity of this phenomenon is on full display in the NSA\/FBI spying affair. Consider these events. President Obama declares that the PRISM program has been \u201ctransparent\u201d when in fact its secrecy has driven a sustained campaign to hide it from public view \u2014 and even to restrict severely knowledge about it to protective Congressional committee members. He invites an open debate on the \u201ctrade-offs\u2019 but offers no information as to what procedures are now in place with what justification. It is not the outright lying that is immature as much as is the attitude that not one should care or even notice the blatant contradictions. Too, he sends his message via a late night talk show rather than a serious address to the American people.<\/p>\n
Responsibility for the program, and therefore accountability, is sloughed off with the claim that \u201cchecks & balances\u201d have been incorporated into the program despite an\u00a0ignorant Congress\u2019 willful passivity and obedient FISA courts giving a nodding \u2019yes\u2019 to everything the NSA, DOJ and White House demand. This is little different from the teen-ager justifying some outrageous behavior by claiming that\u00a0\u2018I checked with Ben and Jerry who said their parents think it\u2019s O.K.\u201d In a similar vein, Senate majority Leader Harry Reed blandly announced that the PRISM spying had to be legal since a majority of the American people think it\u2019s okay according to the opinion polls.<\/p>\n
Mr. Obama complains that the negative reaction to the Snowden disclosures has been \u201chyped.\u201d \u201cCm\u2019 on folks \u2014 don\u2019t get all bent out of shape by a little thing like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then there is the blithe take-my-word-for-it testimony that all is upright. We have heard a chorus from executive branch officials assuring us that the content of electronic messages is never scrutinized except when the FISA court has granted a warrant and that communication patterns themselves are selected according to pre-determined reference points. Why should we believe them when the same people testified a few months back under oath that the PRISM program did not exist? Why should we believe them when they are simultaneously justifying the program with claims that massive, random\u00a0data collection resulted in the prevention of \u201cmore than 50 terrorist acts?\u201d How can you achieve the one without doing the other? This sort of logical contradiction in answers given to\u00a0two different questions is a flagrant disregard for\u00a0the most elementary standards of truthful public discourse.<\/p>\n
The claim itself is absurd. Why should these 50 alleged plots have gone unremarked all this time when the administration has gone out of its way to highlight and celebrate every other instance of a supposed conspiracy foiled \u2014 even the most improbable? In addition, no records are provided that could be examined to determine if the assertions are accurate. Trust me! (\u201cDad, you know that I\u2019d never do anything wrong!\u201d Forget my \u2018yellow sheet\u2019 dating back to the age of 12). And if you don\u2019t trust what I say, you\u2019re the one who is undermining faith in our democracy.<\/p>\n
Another example of juvenilia passing as serious public service is FBI Director Robert Mueller\u2019s belated and grudging admission that the Bureau has been using drone aircraft to spy on Americans. Just a few weeks earlier the White House had been saying that the question of domestic drone use was under study and that it was prepared to cooperate with Congress in fashioning appropriate legislative guidelines. Embarrassment? Apology? Regrets? Of course not. The post-modern public narcissist never feels the need to apologize. He \u201cexplains\u201d \u2014 however thin the explanation might be. Mr. Mueller tells the Senate Intelligence Committee: \u201cI will tell you that our footprint is very small. We have very few of limited use, and we\u2019re exploring not only the use, but the necessary guidelines for that use\u2026..\u201d drones were used \u201cin a very, very minimal way, and very seldom\u2026.It is very narrowly focused on particularized cases and particularized needs, that is the principal privacy limitation we have.\u201d It\u2019s Bill Clinton, the eternal adolescent delinquent, explaining \u201cI didn\u2019t inhale;\u201d or, \u201cI\u2019m\/she\u2019s minimally pregnant \u2014 so I didn\u2019t think it important enough to tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n
The casual hypocrisy of all this was captured in the official statement that \u201cthe government does not \u201cunilaterally obtain information\u201d from corporate servers without \u2018an appropriate, and documented foreign intelligence purpose to the acquisition.\u201d We now know that Yahoo, Google, Facebook etc. have received and acted on over 100,000 demands for access to private records in 2012 alone. Over the life of PRISM that amounts to a number in the vicinity of 250,000. Telephone company demands have not been disclosed but they must be at least as numerous. Only Executive officials with a disregard for honesty would have the nerve to make us believe that each of those demands were documented and that there was reasonable cause to delve into those records. By its own dubious account, only 50 of them turned up anything useful \u2014 that is 1 out of every 10,000. Who is kidding whom? Are they kidding themselves\u00a0? Remember \u2014 these 500,000 requests are supposedly targeted on individuals already identified and thereby constituting just cause. Some targeting.<\/p>\n
The \u201cwar on terror\u201d \u2014 at home and abroad \u2014 \u00a0is now more imaginary than real. We live with the dread\u00a0belief that Americans are\u00a0under siege by an army of evil-doers probing relentlessly for chinks in our armor so as to strike us a grievous blow. The images\u00a0and emotions of 9\/11 fill our minds and rule our actions. Events like the Boston bombings provide just enough impetus to perpetuate the fantasy. To live for more than a decade in a fantasy world is unnatural and unhealthful. Disturbed children do that \u2014 not the elites of a great nation.<\/p>\n
Are we destined to be ruled indefinitely by immature people who have neither the intent nor the incentive ever\u00a0to grow up?<\/p>\n