Eisenhower warns us of the military industrial complex.
Why Hacker News recommends it
Cited as a reference whenever threads turn to the NSA, drones, defense contractors or whistleblowers.
What it is
A three-minute clip of Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell address of January 17, 1961. In it he warns of the unwarranted influence of the military-industrial complex.
Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2013 to 2017.
What Hacker News said
Cites jakeogh · 2013-07 · on “Assange: How cryptography is a key weapon in the fight against empire states”
The biggest threat we face is our tendency to enslave ourselves in the name of a perfect society. "Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear — kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor — with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it by furnishing the exorbitant funds demanded. Yet, in retrospect, these disasters seem never to have happened, seem never to have been quite real." -General Douglas MacArthur July 30th 1957 Eisenhower warned us. [this video]
Cites rdl · 2013-08 · on “NSA to cut system administrators by 90 percent to limit data access”
[this video] President Dwight D. Eisenhower's famous exit speech of 17 JAN 1961 warning of the dangers of the "military-industrial complex."
Cites georgemcbay · 2013-12 · on “I worked on the US drone program. The public should know what really goes on”
Self-preservation. By killing innocents, we incite more people to hate us, thus an increased need for more "defense". [this video] We failed to listen. Sorry, world.
Cites heapcity · 2015-05 · on “Many of the NSA’s Loudest Defenders Have Financial Ties to NSA Contractors”
Pres. Eisenhower gives dire warning: 'We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether saught or unsaught by the Military Industrial Complex' (Jan. 17, 1961) [this video]
Cites wallace_f · 2017-02 · on “Government accused of 'full-frontal attack' on whistleblowers”
Presidents may not hold anywhere near as much power as we believe. Eisenhower seemed to be very concerned in his warning of this when he was leaving office half a century ago: [this video]
Cites steamer25 · 2017-02 · on “As Leaks Multiply, Fears of a ‘Deep State’ in America”
Quote from that speech: "And it means, finally, that government at all levels, must meet its obligation to provide you with the fullest possible information outside the narrowest limits of national security--and we [the Kennedy administration] intend to do it" It's amazing how prescient he is of the mounting conflict between full transparency and full privacy and the battle over who should conform to one or the other. I've also been reminded of Eisenhower's warnings about the military-industrial complex: "This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience... We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties