Solomon's Private File #418
1950's. Stephen wrote about his life in letters to a penpal, and then
in a secure blog, in case he lost his memory again, in the master
computer in his school for gifted students, which he started attending
in 2016 in a new incarnation, until his death. Now his son Solomon is
attending the same school, and is writing in his own secure blog for
his future incarnations.
All characters are fictitious, even if some of them might have names
that belong to some actual people, or act like people we know.
Solomon is 34 in this story, in the Fall of 2060.
Solomon's Private File #418 "Exposure Of A Different Kind"
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soldier there. I said, "Hello Rudi." She jumped almost out of her
chair. I said, "Hmm, think I like to surprise people a little too
much?" She said, "I do!" Then she suspected why I was there. I made a
chair for me, and sat in it. I said, "Ever wonder why my group doesn't
stop countries from spying on each other?" She said, "Oh, that's right.
You don't, that we know of. Why?" I said, "It's because it's in a
nation's self interest to spy. Critical interest, so they won't ever
stop. We would have to stop them continuously. That makes it part of
society. Yes, it's dishonest. Most of politics is. There is another
problem in it. Spies are patriots for their countries, acting on
orders. It wouldn't be fair to punish them for that, what their
supervisors and governments require them to do. That makes it
political, and so another reason it's part of societies."
I said, "It's also part of the balance of powers. The first one to
stop, is at a severe disadvantage. A rational person wouldn't want that
to happen to their own country." She said, "But it's only political.
People won't be hurt." I said with a smile, "Politicians aren't
people?" She said, "Well, only a few people." I said, "That's wrong.
One of the things politicians do is negotiate trade treaties worth
trillions of dollars. There's a lot of competition in that. Any
information about what other politicians plan, and the ability of other
countries to produce and sell things, and what laws they are planing to
regulate that with, is worth those trillions to the countries involved.
Don't think only business care about that. They make what you buy, and
how much it costs, and they employ people. A major country that has its
spying compromised, could loose trillions from its economy, not to
mention loss of employment. Then there's security spying. It sure is a
good idea to spy on people who want you dead, if you don't want to be
dead. And then there are allies who depend on this kind of help.
Actually, it's part of the treaties with them. So, it wouldn't be just
one country that could be hurt."
I said, "Expose spying, people will be hurt financially, in
international relations, and in safety. Idealism is a good thing. Being
an idealist is a bad thing, because those people just don't care about
the consequences of their simplistic goals. People were harmed in some
past exposures, but it's almost impossible to quantify that, because
how can you compare it to what might have been, with any accuracy? But
in general, but not always in specific. Making countries have to be
angry with each other, only for public's so called right to know, which
doesn't actually exist in this case, is harmful. Those trade things
again."
I said, "I see you caught something." She said, "Have to be angry?" I
said, "Yes. This is a silent war. They all do it as much as they can.
None of them want to expose the others, which will make them expose
theirs. Sometimes bad things happen in these matters. Neither side
wants that to interfere with their good relations, but it would have
to, if it goes public. National pride would make it happen. In the
public eye, all international politics is about national pride. My
group knows this very well, with how we help people. A lot of that
wouldn't work if it became known. Pride would get in the way of
accepting help, acknowledging a weakness to others. Nobody likes to do
that, and countries are made up of a lot noisy people who don't." She
grinned.
I said, "Part of diplomacy is understanding the other people
involved. If you can predict which decisions they will make, you have
an advantage. Sharing their knowledge of those people with their
coworkers is essential. Exposing that, ruins it. Who likes to have made
public, that your competition thinks you're a blowhard, and an idiot?"
She laughed. I said, "But it sure helps people you work with, to know
your observations of the competition. When that was exposed in the
past, yes, Manning, that actually did a lot of harm, but not the kind
of harm that could be made public, without causing more outraged pride
in the victims. Hurt allies, too."
She said, "He was a patriot!" I said, "No. He was an immature selfish
revenge seeking crybaby. He was bullied. He was small, effeminate, and
a whiner who got on everybody's nerves. He did it for spite. He knew
very well the damage he would cause, and that's exactly what he wanted.
He was absolutely not a patriot. You know I don't lie." She said, "Wow!
Snowden?" I said, "Politically naive. He wanted to be a hero, to be
famous, and to show off his skills as a hacker. He expected a lot of
money from that. His big mistake was in trusting the newspapers to do
what he wanted, and going to Russia. They never planned to let him go,
without draining him dry. Selfish reasons again, with a big ego.
Definitely not a patriot. A true patriot would have stayed and accepted
his legal punishment, all the while making his case even more noticed
by defending it very publicly. He ran like a frightened guilty rabbit,
but into the greedy arms of the most obnoxious wolf." She said, "I like
how you said that. I see what you mean. He didn't act like a patriot
really would. More like a traitor, actually, now that I think of it."
I said, "The media made a big political deal of the exposure, because
nobody else did. They wanted to stir up the public over what they
already knew, to avoid noticeably not doing their real jobs. Who didn't
know it was happening? All that data out there, and no government was
mining it? Politicians would have been fried if they hadn't made the
government do it. Media tried to get people upset about it, and so did
Congress, only because they had nothing better to do, except oppose
something, anything the President liked. It was so funny, what other
countries said about it, hiding the fact that they were doing worse of
that very thing." She grinned, and said, "I read about some of that."
I said, "There were some abuses he exposed, but surprisingly little.
Most unauthorized exposures were accidental. What made it look bad, was
the large number of them, but those reports didn't show that almost
nothing was actually seen, being accidental, and percentage wise, with
vast numbers of transactions, it was actually inconsequential. It was a
big todo of mostly nothing. But it did wake up a few people to the fact
that unregulated private companies had all their information that the
government was looking at under strict laws, that the companies didn't
have to obey. They bought and sold that private information, and used
it to spy on their customers, where the government didn't, but oh no,
the government knew who you called! How? The phone company did! People
didn't understand the government wasn't looking to spy on everybody.
They were looking for patterns that indicated major crimes were being
planned, such as terrorism, and it worked. And that was all."
She said, "Pentagon papers?" I said, "Jury is still out on that one.
Crimes were exposed, but what actual good did that do? Made other
nations trust America less, and spawned a lot of stupid conspiracy
cults." She said, "Was your group involved with that?" I said, "We knew
about it, but we didn't interfere. We just don't do that kind of thing.
Exposure of classified material hurts international relations, and that
hurts all national interests, from the economy to jobs, and even
interferes with conflicts. Who will trust America to keep their secrets
they want to give us, if we can't keep them ourselves? And some people
in other countries who report to us the crimes there, will be killed.
GOOD people, who risk their lives for us, so we can help their people.
Yes, it happened. Who wants to be responsible for that? Only a self
absorbed, self blinded idealist. You wouldn't want to be one of those,
would you?"
She cried, and said, "No, I wouldn't!" We hugged. She said, "You
could have let me do it, and caught me before I caused any harm.
Instead you helped me!" I said, "You're not a bad person. Just
uninformed. And a little lonely. Not a palatial office you've got. Time
on your hands, isn't just that wristwatch." She grinned, and said, "Now
I know it's really you." I growled, and she laughed. I said, "You're
not alone. No person ever is. God knows and loves you. I love you. You
can't be alone. Remember that, along with honor and duty. You ARE
appreciated!" I stood, and shifted out.
George said, "Added to the curriculum. Thanks! Too bad we can't make
that public. Important things." I said, "Got something similar planned,
from an alien action." I pushed it at him. He said, "Wow! So like us in
the situation, so not like us in appearance! CNN?" I said, "Subject of
the recent action. I should tell her." He said, "Only you would think
of that." I said, "I disagree. Operational requirements are just that.
You would have in my place." We traded rude noises. I shifted to that
Pentagon office again. I said to Rudi, "My monitor wants me to publish
an alien action that's similar to this. What do you think about that?"
She was all wide eyed, and said, "You're actually asking ME!" I said,
"Yes, I heard me do that." She grinned. I said, "If it would make you
feel bad, I won't do it." She had some tears, and said, "No, please do
it. You said some important things they should hear." I said, "Have you
been talking to George!" She chuckled. I said, "It won't have the same
individuals in it, but I might put them in the discussion." She said,
"Good!" We hugged. Then she made loud noises, and had an orgasm. I
helped her to sit, and said, "Don't worry about it. They didn't hear
you. Happens often enough, I take precautions. But that woman at CNN,
well, I had to pry her loose." She laughed loudly.
I did the CNN show with Greg, and he asked about the people who had
exposed things, and I said much the same about them, and most of the
other things I told Rudi. Then he said, "Have you been involved in
spying?" I said, "In my younger days, I did some undercover work with
terrorists. That was then the only real way to get to know them, and
understand why they did what they did. I really didn't like it. In
alien actions, I do some of it. The world of the intelligent trees, for
example. That was something like spying. Often I'm a slave, working
from within the society. Part of my missions is judging the people and
their society in action, before I act to correct it. That also shows me
the good, with the bad, in testing real people. Often, before I knew
all, I had to figure out what the problem was, that I was sent there to
correct. Seriously annoying, but I learned." He grinned. We closed the
show.
Off air, he said, "You usually have an agenda with your shows. You
must have millions of them available. We can usually figure it out. Not
this time." I said, "It was at the request of one of my monitors. If I
can, I like to give them those gifts. This one came from something
recently added to our school study database." He said, "So it was the
school administrator who asked for it. George." I said, "Talk about
spying!" He laughed. George said in the air, "Yes it was!" Greg said,
"Can we use this?" I said, "Oh, alright." Grins. We hugged.
Daren said, "You're exposing more of us. Oh, don't say it!" Grins. I
said, "His birth isn't public, and he has a generic name, and all know
the position exists. Some possible team actions aren't right with who
are already known. In some, the age of the person counts. Dawn is much
younger, and changes a lot. Galya shows a different relationship with
me that isn't right for some actions. Mom and Hawk are much older than
me. Kam is obviously holy. Who's left in the same age group I'm in,
that's appropriate, who's known to have a specialty that can make him
more relatable as a real person?" He said, "Well justified, as I
expected. Some were asking. Thanks." We shared love.
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Grant
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