Thursday, November 13, 2008

Elaine Scarry: The Objective of the Patriot Act

The objective of the Patriot Act [is to make] the population visible and the Justice Department invisible. The Act inverts the constitutional requirement that people's lives be private and the work of government officials be public; it instead crafts a set of conditions that make our inner lives transparent and the workings of government opaque.

- Elaine Scarry, "Acts of Resistance," Harper's Magazine, May 2004

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