The dreams of the authoritarian mind

First a warning: everything you read here today could be used against you later in a court of law.

Take this as your ‘Miranda Warning’. It is not yet a crime to write the things we’ve written in  Capital and Conflict, or to read them. Not yet.

But if the new Investigatory Powers Bill passed proposed by Home Secretary Theresa May becomes law, Britain will have taken one giant leap backward into an authoritarian surveillance state. In that state, everything you say, watch, hear, or read will be recorded. The government will have the power to compel your internet provider and mobile phone company to store your digital history. That history can be reviewed and searched.

Now, before you think this is a rant about privacy and freedom of speech and liberty I should warn you. It is a rant about those essential principles of a liberal society. When principles are under attack, you need to speak up and defend them.

But I do realise this is an article about capital markets and investments. If the subject of personal freedom doesn’t interest you, move along to Charlie’s article about how to value bitcoin.

Technology: a means for permanent surveillance

If you’re still reading I’ll assume you’re still interested. But I’ll keep it brief. Nobody likes a long-winded nutter.

Here’s the main point: when you combine the Investigatory Powers Bill with a highly networked world of technological devices, every piece of technology you use and every piece of data you generate becomes a means for government modification of private behavior.

I say ‘modification’ for a specific reason. The knowledge that what you say, hear, watch, read and think may someday be reviewed by a security service can’t help but have a chilling effect on what you say, what you listen to, what you watch, and what you read. We know from the social sciences that people behave differently when they’re being watched. Now imagine being watched all the time, even when you’re alone with your thoughts at a keyboard.

Defenders of the surveillance state will tell you it’s about policing crime, drugs, terrorism and keeping up with the criminals. They will put in ‘safeguards’ that limit the review of your data to secret Star Chambers full of appointed judges. They will tell you that if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.

But what is the point of men and women dying to defend a liberal order and free society if that society is no longer free? Freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of the press – these principles are the foundation of a free society.

Why?

Because they create a legal and constitutional separation between your rights and liberties and the strictly limited powers of an elected government. That government must govern with the consent of the governed and is restricted, in a way no parliament can legally overcome through a mere democratic vote, from infringing on those rights.

The majority does not rule in matters of principle. The bias in constitutional liberal orders is always in favour of individual liberty, not the authority of the state (or the Crown) or even the will of the majority. Laws like the Investigatory Powers Bill change that bias—probably permanently—in favour of the state (or the Crown) or a majority of lickspittles in government.

This fundamental change in the nature of your political relationship with authority isn’t just bad for personal liberty and freedom. It’s effectively the end of it. You have freedom of movement and action in your day-to-day life. But when the state is always watching what you’re doing or saying, and who you’re doing or saying it with, how free are you?

How free is a prisoner when he gets to leave his cell and walk in the yard for an hour a day?

OK, that’s it

I know I’m pushing my luck. Every time I write something like this, I get dozens of readers who cancel their subscription. Or they remind me that they’ve subscribed for investment analysis, not political philosophy. That’s a fair point.

But there’s an inseparable connection between political liberty and economic liberty. Neither has real value without the other. And when one is under threat – a clear and present danger – both are under threat. It’s important to stand up and be counted while you can still make a different. That’s why we started the petition about preventing the abolition of cash. And that’s why you’re reading this now.

Your own thoughts are welcome, especially if you disagree. Send them to [email protected]. Just don’t write anything that could get you sent to jail now, or in the future. On the other hand, knowing that the authoritarian mind covets your compliance and revels in your submission and subservience, live a little and let me know what you really think.

Category: Geopolitics