The Making of the Mob and The New Digital Panopticon of Modern Surveillance
At the heart of this problem lies power issues and control. By utilizing electronic surveillance technology and electronic targeted assaults one can effectively operate in secret and carry out acts of violence without getting caught.
I went to the Trenton Free Public library for the first time since the pandemic locked civilians down. After I picked up the book, as I approached my car, I was electronically targeted and assaulted. Who is the capo? (04/20/2021)
Part of the power of surveillance is that people whose personal data are collected or observed may not know when or if they are being watched. This is how life in a modern capitalist economy is becoming known and lived through experience where information processing is used to control and coordinate citizen’s access to the goods and services that define life. It is also being used to control and direct human behavior. The most important aspect of this point is that it allows those who control the databases (often corporate or government entities) to know more about the individuals than they know about themselves (Humphreys, 2011). This coupling of intelligence gathering highlights behavioral and cognitive tendencies which corporate and government agencies can evaluate and discriminate against and because the use of these gifted technologies in combination with their use of social networking platforms can lead to decreased privacy because people do not have control over their personal information. The exchange is thus, people disclose personal information in exchange for use of a technological commodity, the gifted device, and/or service benefit from an online provider. This is how power has historically operated within society and it is how the majority (those with power and money) monopolizes marginalized groups (those without power and money) through manipulations and exploitations.
In the Makings of the Mob streaming over AMC+ it was said that mobsters carry a heavy weight on them. Some gamble it away. Some drink it away. Others use drugs, and still, others use women and sex to work it out of them. It is no different for me, wearing the weight of electronic targeting. This is not a statement to degrade those who have gambling, alcohol, or sex addictions. This is a testament to the human condition in support of what Freud theorized about. Human beings strive to reach a state of equilibrium or stasis from those things that cause them discomfort and displeasure. So, tell me how electronic targeting and electronic targeted assaults are not violence?!
Benito Mussolini was a dictator of Italy and founder of the fascist movement. He is also the one who was responsible for driving the Sicilian mafia out of Italy and into the United States in the early part of the 19th century. Mussolini went on a campaign to round up the Costa Nostra (Sicilian Mafia) and place them in camps and prisons because these men rebelled against him and would not listen or follow him. This drove the mafia underground and into a forced migration through Ellis Island, New York City in the early part of the 19th century. Salvatore Maranzano, the one responsible for the Castellammare War which was the inter-gang wars of the Italian mafia bosses and their associates in NYC, was a ruthless businessman. In fact, all mobsters were businessmen who most likely were suffering from The Dark Triad personality constellation; Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy.
The personality constellation known as the Dark Triad isn’t really about labeling people “mobsters.” Although if you have intelligence coupled with this personality profile you are more likely to be a successful mob boss. Today, this personality constellation exists among a variety of people within the United States and it has been researched and observed within a small population of college students pursuing business degrees. It is important to say, that this personality profile also exists among people of lower intelligence levels. It’s just that the more intelligent ones, go one to rule in areas of corporate leadership or like the mobsters of the early 19th century, go on to flourish within subcultures of business-related networks.
Another thing that was said, “Made-Men are sexy.” Many men in the mob were sexy because they had fine clothes and their youth, a diamond pinky ring (although I fail to see how THIS made them “sexy”), they had money and beautiful women on their arms, and possessed a demeanor about them, an air of respectability they present to the viewing world. But how come Lucy Luciano looks like he had a neurological problem in his Wikipedia profile? The answer is because of “the beating” he took from Salvatore Maranzano. Maranzano sent some men to “rough up” Luciano, and when they caught him, they not only beat and stabbed him, they also tortured him. A consequence to the beating was the severed muscles of his right cheek, leaving him with a droop in his right eye following the beating. Luciano was a rather brilliant operator. He organized the modern-day mafia by establishing the Commission and bringing an end to the Castellemare War by setting a mandatory hierarchy within each family; one boss, one underboss, and one consigliere (counselor). He also organized Murder, Inc., a group of four hitmen who carried out mob killing contracts. Now, if a boss or a mobster wanted to kill someone, they had to go to the Commission, on which Lucky Luciano presided as the capo di tutti capi. Capo di tutti capi is the Italian term used to describe the boss of bosses or the chief of all chiefs. In other words, the Godfather. He survived until aged 62, which in and of itself was rather impressive for mobsters originating with his organizational ties in the late 1910s. He received a 30-to-50-year sentence for the rackets he was involved in which was eventually commuted during World War II for an agreement made with the Department of the Navy to provide naval intelligence through his associate Meyer Lansky. In 1946, after the war ended, he was deported to Italy where Luciano died on January 26, 1962, of a heart attack in Naples International Airport. Why does the government like doing “business” with mobsters? Even during their prominent reign as underworld businessmen, they were able to pay off politicians, judges, police officers, and other city officials. Here we can see the close similarities between the mafia, reputable businessmen and political leaders, and The Dark Triad personality traits.
It has been my personal experience with electronic targeted assaults, that the “droopy eye” look is also associated with neurological electronic targeted assaults to the human brain.
Here are some title sub-headings to consider that embody mafia tactics, secret organizations like the Stasi and KGB, and gang stalking/clandestine electronic targeted assaults:
Revenge Versus the Rule of Law
Every Dictator Needs a Secret Police Force
Invisible Invasions by Invisible Empires
Electronic Targeted Assaults: The Espionage of Assaults
Government and Industry Infiltrations and Usurpations of Private Data
The Sword of Repression and the New Watchdogs at the Gates
Internet surveillance, The Webcam Subculture, Closed Circuit Television, and Online Camera Surveillance and Cellular Cyber Surveillance Techniques as the New Digital Enclosure Evolves — — Meet the New Panopticon
In the late 1970s, the System of Joint Acquisition of Enemy Data (SOUD) was a system created by Stasi engineers using stolen or illegally obtained Western technology. At that time, cutting-edge modern computer technology of 1977 was being used. The database became operational by 1979, and although the Soviets had insisted it was based in Moscow, it was the brainchild of the Stasi. All information acquired worldwide by the intelligence and security services of the Eastern bloc was stored in the SOUD computer. One of the sentences that most clearly define Russian intelligence and KGB rule is, “Far from being a quid pro quo, the relationship was often a one-way street.”
This intelligence exchange server’s scope of operations was to safeguard the USSR from ‘foreign threats’ during the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.’ However, it was a system conceived by East German Secret Police engineers and was used as a surveillance tool in the intelligence gathering and exchange of data for not only the population of East and West Germany and Russia, but Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Mongolia, and Cuba. Vietnam would later join them.
The SOUD database included the names of agents, Zionists, hostile religious organizations, organizations of emigrants, journalists, diplomats, cultural and commercial attaches, representatives of airlines, etc. Most of these names included a personal description, the maiden name of the mother, and a sample of the handwriting. A query could be handled in less than four hours' time. We give samples of our signature all the time when we are asked to sign the digital pad at supermarkets, retail stores, or the pharmacy.
Today, the way the government and industries have been collecting data, much more information is included in a person’s profile including their contacts. In addition, lateral surveillance by neighbors, spouses, co-workers, friends, and associates as well as employers can be achieved. Collecting, reading, and using a person’s data against them is not as impossible as it sounds anymore. This is how cyberstalking works, using electronic devices, social media sites, and global positioning systems to carry out surveillance stalking in the metaphorical or literal murder of an individual citizen by other US civilians.
The American mafia is a long way from where it first began in the early part of the 19th century in New York City, but the mentality has not changed, and as new technological advances have been created the new mobsters of the future may well be those with computer knowledge and a remedial understanding of surveillance techniques.
Sources:
Humphreys, .L. (2011). Who’s Watching Whom? A Study of Interactive Technology and Surveillance. Journal of Communication, 61(4),
Koehler, John O. (1999). Stasi: The untold story of the East German Secret Police. Boulder, CO. Westview Press. The book is dedicated to the victims of totalitarianism.
The Making of the Mob. (2015). AMC Network Entertainment. https://www.amc.com/shows/the-making-of-the-mob--103
Articles of interest to consider:
Anderson, J.Q., & Rainie, L. (2008). The future of the Internet III. Washington, DC. Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Andrejevic, M. (2004). The webcam subculture and the digital enclosure. In N. Couldry & A. McCarthy (Eds.), MediaSpace: Place, scale and culture in a media age (pp. 193–208). London: Routledge.
Andrejevic, M. (2006). The discipline of watching: Detection, risk, and lateral surveillance. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 23, 391–407.
Andrejevic, M. (2007). iSpy: Surveillance and power in the interactive era. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
Boyd, d.m. (2004). Friendster and publicly articulated social networking. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Human Interaction (CHI2004), USA, 1279–1282.
Boyd, d.m., & Elliosn, N.B. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 13(12): 210–230.
Couldry, N., & McCarthy, A. (Eds.). (2004). MediaSpace: Place, scale and culture in a media age. London. Routledge.
Crowley, D. (2007). Me & Alex quit Google. (Dodgeball forever). Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/dpstyles/460987802/.
CTIA. (2011). Semi-annual wireless industry survey: Annualized wireless industry survey results — Year-End 2010 Top-Line Survey Results. Washington. DC: CTIA — The Wireless Association.
Dodgeball. (2005). Dodgeball’s privacy statement. Retrieved from www.Dodgeball.com/privacy.
Ellison, N., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The benefits of Facebook “friends”: Exploring the relationship between college students’ use of online social networks and social capital. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4), 1143–1168.
Elmer, G. (2003). A diagram of panoptic surveillance. New Media & Society, 5, 231–247.
Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison (A. Sheridan, Trans.). New York. Pantheon Books.
Fox, S., Raine, L., Horrigan, J., Lenhart, A., Spooner, T., & Carter, C. (2000). Trust and privacy online: Why Americans want to rewrite the rules. Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Gandy, O.H., Jr. (1989). The surveillance society: Information technology and bureaucratic social control. Journal of Communication, 39(3), 61–76.
Gandy, O.H., Jr. (1993). The panoptic sort: A political economy of personal information. Boulder. CO. Westview Press.
Glaser, B.G., & Struass, A.L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies of qualitative research. New York. Aldine de Gruyter.
Google. (2009, June 15). Mobile privacy policy. Mountain View, CA. Retrieved from http://m.google.com/static/en/privacy.html.
Humphreys, L. (2007). Mobile social networks and social practice: A case study of Dodgeball. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1): 341–360.
Kay, P. (1978). Policy issues in interactive cable television. Journal of Communication, 28(2), 202–208.
Lampe, C., Ellison, N., & Steinfield, C. (2006). A Face(book) in the crowd: Social searching vs. social browsing. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW2006), USA, 167–170.
Lofland, J., Snow, D.A., Anderson, L., & Lofland, L.H. (2006). Analyzing social settings: A guide to qualitative observation and analysis (4th ed.). Belmont, CA. Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Lyon, D. (2001). Surveillance society: Monitoring in everyday life. Buckingham. Open University Press.
McFarlane, L., & Bocij, P. (2003). An exploration of predatory behaviour in cyberspace: Towards a typology of cyberstalkers. First Monday, 8(9), article 5. Retrieved from http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1076/996
McLuhan, M., & Powers, B. (1980). Electronic banking and the death of privacy. Journal of Communication, 31(1), 164–169.
Meyrowitz, J. (2007). Watching us being watched: State, corporate, and citizen surveillance. Paper presented at the symposium “The End of Television? Its Impact on the World (So Far).” Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
Poster, M. (1990). The mode of information: Poststructuralism and social construct. Chicago. University of Chicago Press.
Rogers, E. (1995). Diffusion of innovations (4th ed.). New York. Free Press.
Rosenzweig, R., & Thelen, D. (1998). The presence of the past: popular uses of history in American Life. New York. Columbia University Press.
Shirky, C. (2005, May 11). Google acquires Dodgeball. Retrieved from http://many.corante.com/archives/2005/05/11/google_acquires_dodgeball.php.
Stopne, E., Gueutal, H.G., Gardner, D.G., & McClure, S. (1983). A field experiment comparing information-privacy values, beliefs, and attitudes across several types of organizations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 68, 459–468.
Vas, P., & Bruno, F. (2003). Types of self-surveillance: From abnormality to individuals ‘at risk’. Surveillance and Society, 1, 272–291.
Vidmar, N., & Flaherty, D.H. (1985). Concern for personal privacy in an electronic age. Journal of Communication, 35(2), 91–93.
Westin, A.F. (2003). Social and political dimensions of privacy. Journal of Social Issues, 59, 431–453.
Whitaker, R. (1999). The end of privacy: How total surveillance is becoming a reality. New York. New Press.
