Primacy of Information

The Primacy of Information in the 21st Century Get the facts first. You can distort them later. -- Mark Twain

> Information: the next level Information is both the driver, and the distraction, of our existence. Information lays the foundations of our perceptions, and thus the basis of the perspectives we build on the world. Information is what creates impressions, strengthens beliefs, and eventually, what guides us to make choices, and tells us which actions to take. Information tells us what is happening in the world around us, from our cousins back home, to our political choices from local to national, to the impacts of Afghanistan on the rest of the world. But because information reaches us through channels like the mass media that depend on the access, beliefs, and biases of others, information can steer us in detrimental, as well as useful, directions - even constructing for us false images of our lives, our actions, and our impact upon the world. This means that information is a unique entity in our world. It is not like material objects, with qualities like mass or volume; it can not be held and gauged by weight or color. A picture is worth a thousand words, and either a picture or the words can change our lives.
> Pentagon 'ready to lie' to win War on Terror "The Pentagon has set up a covert unit to wage an information war that could include feeding false stories to foreign media... A senior Pentagon official was quoted as saying that the information battle “goes from the blackest of black programmes to the whitest of white”. " Media watchdog FAIR says that Pentagon Propaganda Plan Is Undemocratic, Possibly Illegal and that the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Influence (OSI)'s "new plan will likely lead to disinformation planted in a foreign news report being picked up by U.S. news outlets." The U.S. Army’s Psychological Operations Command (PSYOPS), accused of operating domestically as recently as the Kosovo war may be involved.
It is not like the flows of energy that surround us, for a barrel of oil distributed among ten reporters gives them each a tenth of a barrel, while a story on oil can be given wholly to each. Of course, that same story may become 10 different stories, depending on the knowledge and intention of the reporter. Information can be many things to many people. It spreads and multiplies, it impacts, it focuses or distracts: and it creates the understanding we have of the world. It can - and has - changed the perceptions, and the actions, of nations as well as individuals, thus helping to construct the flow of history and our world today. In fact, information is the very basis of the modern world today - our democracy, financial exchanges, politics, and culture depend on swift, accurate, dependable information flow. False information induced the rejection of many voters at the polls in the Florida presidential election - possibly giving Bush instead of Gore the presidency. Misleading information and possibly deceptive information about energy giant Enron cost investors billions of dollars, financial scandal, and impacted the largest economy in the world. Information about us as individuals determines our credit rating, our job approval, our reputation. Information about the actions of our officials determine public opinion, and thus changes in national policy, budgetary spending, and the distribution of power. What would have changed if the public had not heard of Monica Lewinsky, or of Watergate? How much of a difference has it made that the public does not see the most censored stories each year? The problem is, we don't know. Information is also a tricky thing. We want as much information available about others (that's news), and as little information about ourselves (that's privacy). Information can help determine our security through hidden cameras - but can just as easily flip into the domain of Big Brother, manipulation, and information control. And how we draw the line between these two - and how we know others are not crossing the line - is also based on information. At the least, it is wise to acknowledge the primacy of information in modern affairs, and to safeguard its essential qualities of integrity, accuracy, and truthful context. On these the stability of our political, economic, environmental, and cultural systems rest. This section, therefore, is to help you, the reader, stay abreast of the meta-topic of 'information flow', to track its implications and impacts both personal and global.

INFORMATION WARFARE Institute For The Advanced Study Of Information Warfare Their purpose is to facilitate an understanding of information warfare( I-War, IW, C4I, or Cyberwar) with reference to both military and civilian life. InfoWar Portal: The Global Clearinghouse for Information Warfare on the Internet, Computer Security, Information Warfare. The Mesh and the Net - Speculations on Armed Conflict In an Age of Free Silicon - by Martin Libicki A 1994 paper that lays out many of the relevant issues. RESOURCES A Guide to Information Warfare Information Warfare and Information Security on the Web Good compilation of links Glossary of Information Warfare Terms MEDIA CONSTRAINT/SPINNING ABC Omits U.S. From Human Rights Report Does preventing public criticism of U.S. human rights benefit the U.S. body politic? Or does it cocoon us in an unreal view of how the U.S. is perceived by the rest of the world, and hinder needed assessment of our actions? Walter Cronkite on military censorship: Without journalists accompanying the troops, Americans aren't getting enough information. We in the news business should be screaming much louder than we are.'' Censorship - Can a free press survive America's new war? - by Alan Pittman In "America's New War" the first U.S. casualty may be the First Amendment. "We're being fed a line," she said. A free press "is a civil liberty we've quickly lost." Ashcroft's Media Scam: A Confederacy of Amnesia by Norman Solomon, FAIR How lack of media context and history determines our perceptions of public figures - and quite possibly their actions. The Top Ten Most Censored Stories For 2000 by Project Censored. From the proposed privatization of water and the unreported dangers of genetically altered foods, to the unseen influences of pharmaceutical companies on doctors, or Army PSYOPS on the media - what is the media not telling us, and why? PRIVACY/CIVIL LIBERTIES

Unusual Coalition to Prevent de Facto National ID - Standardization of drivers licenses "would be ineffective, expensive and a severe hit to basic privacy rights in America."

ID card for air passengers By Tom Ramstack, The Washington Times
Delta tests cabin video surveillance
How much personal surveillance are we willing to undergo in the name of security?

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