Marcus Aurelius, The NSA and Securing your Future - Practical Philosophy

(above: NSA Technical Director - William Binney)

I am fortunate enough to have contacts with former members of various government security agencies, one of whom is former NSA Technical Director, and godfather of modern Crypto-mathematics William Binney, and IT Security Expert Arjen Kamphuis. They have both set their targets on revealing the state of mass survelliance, why it actually matters - and what you can do about it.

I would like to make a slightly surreal journey back to the year 180AD, to discuss how we got into the position - whereby entire populations submit to authority, with barely a peep. Maybe it has something to do with the birth of the idea that we should all ignore those who seek to visit violence or ill will upon us, and to turn the other cheek?

"What have they ever given us in return?" - quipped John Cleese about "The Romans" in the Monty Python film Life of Brian....

The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius is responsible for a book called Meditations. Which is essentially a sort of compilation of his more interesting diary notes over his lifespan - these were later sorted into the book which you can now buy.

The book itself is interesting because of the very nature of it, it was never intended to become a book, and as such the passage of time over the writers life is embedded deeply into the writings, which are presented in chronological order. Marcus visibly grows steadily more weary from the first to the last page, its not only a book but a valuable record of the evolution of one mans thinking, mind and mood over his adult lifetime - ending in the year 180 AD.

Marcus writes of Stoicism, the invention of which is generally credited to earlier Greek philosophers, like Zeno - who died nearly half a millennium before the birth of Christ; but what is Stoicism ? It is many things but can be construed as containing many of the core messages that would later be brought to broader attention in the Bible. Turning the other cheek in the face of aggression, was something Marcus wrote about often.

One of the central messages of Stoicism, is to essentially remain uninfluenced by external events, be they beneficial or painful, and to just concentrate on taming our own reactions and to try to instead build up our own sense of self from within, independent of what may occur outside. Stoicism may well be said to have created one of the seeds of Christian ideology.

I often go through phases of managing to behave in a "Stoic" way, and this is really also the grounding for the type of presence-based thought that modern philosophers like Eckhart Tolle talk and write about. The events of the last decade, increasing have convinced me that elements of Stoicism are no longer what humanity needs to progress forwards, and worse that although it may not have been intended to be so - that it is a way of thinking now abused by certain groups of people to exert malignant power and control over populaces.

What do I mean by this ?

At one stage, it would be said that by simply ignoring the negative goings on around us, and concentrating on our own spiritual development, we make the best of things. Perhaps this is still a very and productive way to go about life on a very local scale, amongst our own friends, family and other social groups. However Globalization and digitization of almost every aspect of modern life on the planet, has also created almost unparalleled opportunity for the centralization of very dark forces - which threatens not our peace of mind; but the actual fabric of the physical reality in which we reside.

Without dissapearing down the rabbit-hole of discussions about the nature or motives of these malicious groups, I certainly believe that very powerful and selfish groups of people connected to banking, armaments, pharmaceuticals and high-level power-elites are aware that the most fruitful days of Capitalism are perhaps waning - or have at least put eyes on the summit of the mountain of greed we are ascending. The only reaction that greed can have in this knowledge is to make a final - forceful push to grab resources, and to take steps to secure those resources in a dominion where they have some measure of control over them.

Naturally in the age of Marcus, the world was no more, or less difficult or dangerous than now - great empires ruled over the lands and justice, safety and generosity were likely in short supply, then as now. However there are now many groups of separate interests, each of whom are capable of sending the planet (in as far as it being a useful place to support our current population level) into freefall.

Many writings have forseen, and somewhat accurately predicted the path we are now treading, Brave New World and 1984 probably being the most famous. However, at least in 1984, the advance of evil required a large and elaborate system of mental and physical controls in order to placate the population. At least in Europe, since the fall of the Berlin wall, there has been precious little evidence of any serious activity by the population to resist the encroachment of the negative forces which are permeating modern culture. Of course minor acts of resistance have been made, a few people have shown indescribable bravery and given literally everything in order to stop what they knew was wrong. Brian Haw, was one of them.

I remember myself marching in London against the Iraq War, with something like half a million people. The entire centre of the inner city of London was full of people. The BBC reported it the next day as having contained about ten times less people that it actually did, a standard technique to calm any revolutionary ideas that those on the periphery might have about joining in.

What does any of this have to do with Marcus Aurelius ?

I think that the teachings that one should turn the other cheek when confronted with those who are unenlightened, or just plain malevolant is in need of some revision, the notion that the calm and peaceful few can sit on the hillside and wait-it-out whilst the forces of darkness fight it out on the plains below is now dangerously irrelevant to our situation as a species. I place a great deal of the responsibility for this at the feet of Stoicism and Christianity.

This of course brings an even more confusing and deeply complex discussion to the fore, about our own actions, and if any of us can remain inherently "good", if we use force to protect our physical surroundings from theft or damage. However this is really just an excuse to avoid having to do anything difficult - and also something that those who would do us harm and take from us rely on us continuing to think. Gandhi, with his civil disobedience showed incredible strength in the face of the British Empire - which was in his time and place a deeply evil presence manifested in the early form under the disguised visage of the East India Company. I believe that we can take a great deal from Gandhi`s approach - which was perhaps a well considered middle ground between physical violence and passive acceptance under an authoritarian and brutal system of rule.

In ancient China, the keepers of intellectual teachings were beset with threats from bandits and their own rulers - instead of turning the other cheek - they formed clans of warriors who defended their ideas - violently if necessary. They did not seek to harm others, but Kung-Fu was formed as a metho d of defending human intellectual endevour from the dark forces of the time, the monks of China did not practice it on order to become the focus of interesting films thousands of years later, it was a practice required to secure their physical realm from destruction.

I believe it is past time that people cast aside the notion that they can go through their lives in serene peace, comfortable in the knowledge that a cosy afterlife awaits them - modern life has through its creature-comforts deceived us into thinking we are not in the same world that the warrior Shaolin Monks of China were, defending their temples against their own governments. We are in that same world, and the same things are being taken from us - but, unlike in the year 1732, we are calmly handing out our rights, property, knowledge and futures on a plate to those who do not wish us well.

Stoicism has its place in the local community, and in our own minds - but it has no place as a philosophy when confronted by darkness on a global scale. We should learn from the Shaolin-Monks, and take steps to defend our own values as sentient beings, intent on scientific, intellectual, spiritual, musical and cultural pursuit.

If we allow ourselves to be absorbed into the modern definition whereby we are known simply as "consumers", we will - figuratively and physically begin to vanish from existence. As a professional Mechanical Engineer I despise all writings which bring a problem to attention then leave the solution to someone else, regardless of the field. To begin to do something about these problems we face I suggest the following.

1 - Start using TOR web browser to conduct all your online activity, it is the only way to prevent private and government interests from recording, cataloging and selling detailed records of everything in your entire life - keep in mind that modern social media actually gathers this information, usese it to sell things to you - and even more insidiously now actually contains algorithms in the software to manipulate your behavior - should you not be fitting the profile of an active and prosperous consumer of goods.

My good friend, and IT security expert Arjen Kamphuis put this guide together:

https://files.gendo.ch/Books/InfoSec_for_Journalists_V1.1.pdf

2 - Start using Linux operating system, it is infinitely more secure than Windows - which will happily be letting anyone with a passing interest know almost anything they want to about you.

(the guide above will help)

3 - Keep your mobile phone switched off, and your laptop speakers off. Unless you actually want everything you say to be recorded by somebody.

4 - Do not buy a smart-TV or any other gadget called "smart". This simply means its permanently wired into the internet, and is totally open to recording and monitoring everything you say and do inside your own home. This data is valuable to marketing forces like Facebook and governments alike.

5 - Do not get a smart-power meter in your house.

6 - Consider distributing your family assets outside of easily controlled asset areas associated with banks. Crypto-currency is an essential element to future asset security, and the fact it is outside of the control of established financial forces renders it an exceptionally dangerous development to some of the groups intent on controlling aspects of our lives for their own financial and material gain.

I would like to finally say that none of the above information comes to me from watching badly produced scare-videos on YouTube (which do constitute about 50% of all internet material it seems !).

I strongly suggest you listen to the advice of experts, whos job it has been to control the Government gathering of personal data - on securing your own data, and on the methods used by others to take it from you.

Below: Video of William Binney and Arjen Kampuis addressing the Mathematics Dept. of Cambridge University this year. Contains full global maps of where NSA taps into the main internet fibre-bundles, how your data is taken and what is done with it:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXYvnBHXYKz6lSywJiPod4Q