'Whoever doesn't record or take pictures, writes a Facebook post or tweets. It's all out there'
Information era taking its toll on the truth
Op-ed: Immediate publication of everything people of authority say has resulted in a new level of hypocrisy and lies.
The reader's natural response at the end of this article will be, or at least should be: What is he talking about? We can't stop progress, we can't turn back time, and other scrapped expressions.
The prime minister's secretary records the prime minister.
The IDF chief of staff records the defense minister.
The defense minister records foreign defense ministers who arrive as his guests. The prime minister records both the chief of staff and the defense minister, and also his foreign guests. Whoever doesn't record, uses a camera. Whoever doesn't take pictures, writes a Facebook post or tweets. It's all out there.
That's all very nice and true, but it seems that the solution to the following question has yet to be found: How can you run a state when its leaders' innards are rolling around in public for all to see? How can you say anything and express a real and sincere opinion when you are secretly being recorded, when you are surreptitiously being photographed, and even before you get home, the media are already discussing what you said, how you said it, why you said it and what your hidden motives are?
Spy Games
Eitan Haber
Op-ed: Intelligence services have much better ways of collecting information than tapping phones or emails.
Here's an imaginary scene which should take place dozens of times a day: The prime minister convenes a group of advisors in his office, or even just one advisor, to ask whether he should write in his letter of response to President Obama "I find it astonishing" or "I find it surprising." The prime minister is aware, after all, of the importance diplomacy and the White House give to words.
What is the first thing that crosses the advisor's mind the moment he walks into the office? "I am being recorded. I will not express my real opinion here and now, but only what I want them to know 'out there.'" And what does the prime minister say to himself before the discussion begins? "The advisor is recording me. I won't voice my real opinion on the discussed question, but say what should be said."
It's true that there have always been leaks, but nose-picking was not shown on Instagram photos, things were not posted on hundreds of websites, and fiery comments from thousands of talkbackers were not published on the Internet. This is the way of the world in the 21st century, but it has a price.
The direct result of the atmosphere of immediate publication at all costs, which has taken over the government and the public in recent years, in which everything is permitted and possible and available to everyone, is that no one believes anyone anymore. Everyone records everyone, everyone takes pictures of everyone and invests a lot of time not in the deed itself, but in the way it is presented on Facebook.
The even more harmful result is a swift increase in the level of hypocrisy and lies. People of authority, who determine fates for life or for death – in the fields of security, health, transportation – are not telling the truth. They are not expressing their real opinion but what they think should appear on Facebook in a minute.
There have been distorted, wicked and very inaccurate leaks in the past as well, but the atmosphere at the time wasn't of an insane competition over who will appear on the Internet first and set the tone and direction of the public opinion. Even hypocrisy had a different color and dosage at the time.
The fear that they are being recorded, quoted on social networks and creating a wave of despicable reactions, largely dictates politicians' way and decisions. Indeed, the "freedom of information" has suffered in the past, but in return we got the truth and real considerations.
In a permissive atmosphere, in which everything is allowed and possible, it was only a matter of time before soldiers publicly rose up against legal orders, like what happened last week. And this is only the beginning.
So what can we do? Like many other answers, this is also a matter of education which will take quite a few years.
