The internet is watching

One thing about this brave new world of communications technology that we don't hear much about is the almost ubiquitous, distributed surveillance that results from the fact that everyone carries around a handheld video recorder. So when Condoleezza Rice has a rather testy exchange with a Stanford student after some event:



...it can eventually find its way into an editorial of the nation's paper of record:

Consider a recent chat at a college reception between a student and Condoleezza Rice, who as White House national security adviser was deeply involved in the development of the authorization of brutality and torture.

Among the many absurd things Ms. Rice did was to offer this argument that waterboarding is legal: “By definition, if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations under the Convention Against Torture.”

Pretty neat. And incidentally, I've always thought of this "distributed Big Brother" phenomenon as a good thing, giving us the benefits of surveillance (people get punished for doing bad things) without the accompanying specter of government abuse. Be good: society is watching you!

On a separate note, Rice's behavior in the video made me rise an eyebrow or two. When you accuse someone of stealing bread, and that person starts talking about how hungry they were at the time of the theft, that person starts to sound pretty guilty. Likewise, if you accuse someone of authorizing torture, and that person starts talking about how dreadful 9/11 was, it sounds like this is a person who, as a matter of fact, has authorized torture, and who is basically pleading for mercy given the circumstances.

Anybody else would have done the same thing! You don't know what it's like to go hungry! I had children to feed--I had to steal it!

And I'll tell you something. Unless you were there in a position of responsibility after September 11^th, you cannot possibly imagine the dilemmas that you faced in trying to protect Americans....If you were there in a position of authority, and watched Americans jump out of 80-story buildings because these murderous tyrants went after innocent people, then you were determined to do anything that you could that was legal to prevent that from happening again.