Battling the Great Evil of Our Time

The United States towards the end of World War 2 and after it were faced with a difficult decision on how to handle the Soviet Union. The Soviets were on the march in the east and the Americans (among others) were on the march in the west. Although quite different these two forces united to stop a common foe. These two civilizations were on a crash course that would change the course of history and usher in a period of constant fear and distrust of government and neighbor.
This distrust led to something known as the “national security state”. This means the state can declare something or someone a threat to national security and usurp their privacy. A time where this was present is the period known as the “Red Scare”. This was during the height of the Cold War and anti-communist sentiments ran rampant all throughout the country. Under the guise of national security, the US government was going after people and institutions with whom they disagreed such as Hollywood actors (Dean) . This all led to a growing distrust of both the government but also your fellow American. Hysteria flooded the nation as people were worried if they too were living next to Soviet sympathizers. These trends were not helped by an ever-growing unchecked Executive branch. Stowed away in the bureaucracy of the Executive branch agencies like the CIA were conducting operations that included actions such as “overthrowing governments” (Dean). In the following decades, this unchecked bureaucracy grew but a new issue presented itself in the form of the “culture of secrecy”. Aided by the Red Scare and Watergate there was a genuine feeling that the American people were being lied to by the American government. This freakish paranoia has largely been accepted with an example being the treatment of POWs from Iraq and Afghanistan and the use of CIA Black sites (Dean). The article argues that this is at odds with our ideas of our democracy and the notion of America being a free and open society. The author points out that this era is an important case study in how culture of freedom and openness can be changed by the institutions and levers of government.
An example of this is given in another article about rural parts of Nevada and Utah and how these ideas manifest themselves in everyday life. The piece talks about how after World War 2 and the quest for nuclear proliferation affected the local tribes in Nevada. It also mentions how the government officially did not own the land but used it for nuclear testing anyway (Fox). There was also a natural fear of these nuclear weapons and so the government went out of its way to downplay the harms these things cause. The article also recounts the story of the Sheahan’s and the Bulloch’s who were affected by testing done near them. Their account is crucial to understanding that they and others viewed this as part of their duty as a citizen and thinking about this in the context of the Red Scare it would not be preposterous to say that they did not want to be seen as Soviet sympathizers.

Does this national security state exist today? I would lean towards yes. I think it manifests itself in a different way than it did in the past. In the past, it was more about foreign entanglements but now I believe it is more internally focused. It also is more blatant and out in the open as it was more secretive in the past. The passage of the Patriot Act and the handling of the Pandemic are two examples of this pervasive state expansion in the name of national security. The Patriot Act one is obvious and I am sure others have written about it better than I have so I will focus on an example from Covid. The eviction moratorium is an example of this with the CDC in August of 2021 trying to extend another moratorium on evictions for those who were not paying rent. It was an absurd violation of the Constitution under the guise of national security. These problems still exist but manifest themselves in a different way than they did before.