Mutually Assured Destruction

Since the Patriot Act as recently expanded by Congress this year opened up a booming black market for electronic information, two unforeseen consequences have emerged. The first being information terrorism wherein terrorists acquire small but potentially destructive pieces of information, and this thus far has proven about as unthreatening as any other form of terrorism that has developed since the creation of the military-industrial complex. The second, however, is a bit more disturbing. Lethal information has become so cheap that virtually anyone who has the capital can put his or herself in a position to blackmail another person or even destroy their public image. It has come to the point that many are being encouraged by information advisers (who usually also sell information as it were) to hoard massive files of dirt on friends and foes by some logic of Mutually Assured Destruction, i.e. that the only way to prevent these conflicts is for everyone to know about every backdoor deal, illegitimate child, and blow job in the life of everyone else.

Somehow our historical memories have forgotten that M.A.D. (Mutually Assured Destruction) was part of a scheme (a rather brilliant one I might add) by the industry to justify significant purchases of weapons, and in particular, the development of high-margin pseudo-weapons like nuclear warheads and mustard bombs. That so many have actually now fallen victim to such a logic is a testament to the power of suggestion and the insidious tenacity of narrative. However, it would be better if we would all wake up and smell the coffee instead of blindly falling for the oldest trick in the book. The Cold War is almost over, but that does not mean we should forget its lessons.