The internet, Venezuela and global power

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America could never have carried out the kind of in-and-out kidnapping of the Venezuelan president without the internet. The internet gave the US empire global control and global awareness, which was the purpose of the internet from the beginning. For the attack on Venezuela, the security state component of the internet (which lives hidden among the commercial internet we all use) came online in a big way: it tied in and synchronized attack boats and aircraft carriers, helicopters, agents on the ground, cyber attacks, jamming technology, generals in the Pentagon overseeing the op, and of course our dear leader in the White House… It allowed the empire, with all its globe-spanning technological systems, to act like Zeus — hurtling bolts from heaven, kidnapping with ease…our bloated and botoxed gods watching it all in real time. They can do this wherever they want…but with a big caveat. They can do it as long as the “foe” is weak enough not to retaliate and start a nuclear war. And so this kind of aggressive action only helps to proliferate nuclear technology around the world, further entrenching industrial technocratic systems. The Machine metastasizes.

If you are in the Bay Area, come out to our event in SF this night Sunday: INTERNET JUNKIE ANONYMOUS.

I was rereading a part of my own book Surveillance Valley yesterday and I came across a passage that is very fitting for today’s event. Most people don’t know that the first successful test of the internet that we use today happened in the Bay Area, was run by the Pentagon’s research wing, and was meant to recreate a situation in which NATO forces were fighting the Soviet Union — all centered around Stanford and the 101 freeway. Vint Cerf, one of the Founding Fathers of the Internet who went on to have a lucrative career in telecoms after leaving government service and even become a Google Evangelist, presided over the whole NATO demonstration. The internet was always a weapon — developed in the middle of the Cold War and justified by America’s fight against communism. But the fight against communism was just a mask for more bland imperial ambitions — for control of as much of the world as America and the corporate structures that rule it could handle.

So this is my message to those who think that the internet is empowering them just because you have access to information and can chat with people: It was never created for you. It was created for the powerful to further centralize and consolidate their power. The global internet takes vast resources to run. Its development and current operations are dominated by the corporate security state. You have no power over the internet. And it will be taken from you if it is ever truly a threat.

—Yasha

PS: I’m currently making a doc series about the internet. Help me make it.

PPS: Here’s the NATO bit bit from Surveillance Valley: