[ospamma] and the titanic struggle between big brother and "them"

There's an interesting little issue but I'm not sure what to think of it. The idea is so firmly embedded in the mind that the Government should have no reach into anyone's private life that even a Swiss bank account should be sacrosanct.

Does anyone remember Jeffrey Archer's Twist in the Tale, with the story of Clean-Sweep Ignatius?

"Set against a backdrop of a Finance Minister who vows to clean up the corruption that is rampant in his country (haven’t we heard this one before ?), this tale innovatively explores the ’’as safe as a Swiss bank vault’’ statement."

The story turned on the whole notion of private details being absolutely sacrosanct - that the economy of Switzerland might even falter once that security was breached.

Now we have this:

Several Swiss financial experts criticized last week's settlement between UBS AG and the U.S government, saying that Switzerland's banking secrecy is likely to come under pressure from other countries.

"There are two winners [from the deal]," Swiss banking expert Hans Geiger told Swiss weekly Sonntag. "UBS...and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service [IRS]. Switzerland and our market place have lost. Now it's clear that Germany and Italy will increase pressure."

UBS and the U.S. government on Wednesday signed a deal to settle a U.S. tax-evasion probe that had sought the names of 52,000 of the Swiss bank's U.S. clients. Details of the settlement can be expected as early as next week, according to the IRS.

Some might see this as poetic justice that money does talk and banks in another country can be bribed or coerced into releasing private details. Others might see this as the overture in a new titanic struggle between Big Brother government and Them, not the same entity in the least. Big Brother might start the wars but They start the depressions leading to wars, create the destabilization and finance the wars.

Therefore you might see this as a struggle which doesn't concern us but it does. For if the Government is able to extend its reach even this far, there is no escaping it, just as in the Soviet Union and this reach is not necessarily benign. One's assets can be seized on the flimsiest of pretexts.

At the same time comes another seemingly minor issue and that is the White House email scandal, whereby people with no knowledge of being on a White House mailing list in the first place received emails pushing the public health-care initiative. The issue deepened when it was thought that:

One possible reason for the confusion is that advocacy groups, when dealing with online petitions, are sending in their membership lists whenever they make contact with the White House - the e-mail addresses affiliated with those members could then become embedded in the White House distribution list. The White House indicated its Web site managers are going to seek out and block online petitions so that people can only sign up for information individually.

So - block online petitions. Just beautiful. People miraculously appear on a White House list. The White House blames third parties for that, including "advocacy groups" or lobbyists who must give their membership lists any time they make contact with the White House. So, to solve the problem, advocacy is blocked and the White House no longer gets requests from community groups.

Who's worse - the Government or Them? Answer - the Government because we can't see Them and what the eyes don't see ...... etc.