A few days ago, I woke up to hear the following news.
"Sources tell The Washington Post that if the information was shared with others, it could expose intelligence gathering methods that the U.S. wants to keep hidden from the world."
I did not question the authenticity of this revealing piece of news. But the moment I heard it, I couldn't help saying this is crazy. It came across that the reported intelligence gathering is attributable to the CIA and that it wants its methods hidden from the world. I stand corrected if it is a different U.S. agency. In that case, this reflection would be directed to that U.S. agency.
Here is what I concluded from hearing this piece of information: It wants America to be in this world but it wants its intelligence gathering methods hidden from the same world.
If this is the case and I don't know any other meaningful way to understand it, this has been CIA's America, not Jefferson's America, or America the Republic that evidently has yet to become a reality.
Jefferson's America came after enlightenment and renaissance movements in Europe. A primary letter of his that I once came across suggests that he thought that he had a crystal ball on humanity's long history. A quick reflection on that letter by todays standard of human knowledge puts it to rest quickly that the crystal ball he was looking at was a fraction of the knowable ball, which didn't come in time for him.
Jefferson's America instituted slavery. He wasn't alone. It was widespread here and there throughout history. Scriptures have it that the ancient Pharaohs practiced it. The Indians that the British colonized for long had a caste system in their own country. The Arabs participated in its trade.
The original sins of Jefferson's America is that it put in place the crystal ball that they thought that they had found after robbing a continent of its native population after crossing an ocean and after abducting and exploiting the natives of another continent.
They said it was an experiment. It is repeated to this day that such is an experiment.
I do not know if any country in the world was formed perfectly. Every country may be a project in progress into eternity. America's so many amendments in a relatively short time are unique, which is suggestive of the amount of shortfalls it had to begin with. In parallel, it has made enormous advancements on top of that incomplete crystal ball.
If my limited reading about Jefferson is not mistaken, he was a clever student of ancient history. I remember reading that he studied about France's history, probably interested in the liberté, égalité, fraternité ideas as he envisioned an experiment of democracy in America.
If he rose from his grave in this era and heard what CIA's America wants hidden from the world, would he say this is decadence, which is futile, and that polity knows receipt, not deceit, or would he fly to France to tell them that there are intelligence gathering methods that Jefferson's America wants hidden from France. In short, would he say CIA's America is in consonant with even Jefferson's America?
This is not an easy question to answer definitively because Jefferson is not alive today. Perhaps, students of his biography can get a good amount of clues from his own writings that have been made available.
In its efforts to make progress toward America the Republic, a republic of its serious democrats, a republic of the Progressives that envision eternity in democracy, it has labored. It has seen the assassinations of people like Presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The fundamental question that has been in my mind ever since I heard the above dogma a few days ago is how to understand the spectrum of Jefferson's America, CIA's America, and America the Republic. I have never met anyone who told me that she or he works for or has worked for the CIA. So, after hearing that it wants America to be in this world but it wants its intelligence gathering methods hidden from the same world, I wonder what kinds of conscious people who work for such couldn't and wouldn't say this is craziness that it has to evolve out of it.
A while back, I wanted to comment about how to get baby America evolve into polity. Baby because it is so much younger than many other nations around the world. Evolve into polity because wanting America to be in this world while at the same time wanting its intelligence gathering methods hidden from the same world is not polite. A polity knows how to repent let alone how to correct its shortfalls.
This may partly explain why historically magnificent polities are rising in this era. The UK that Jefferson's America fought against to be independent from now has a Prime Minister who can say Namaste and Karma. The descendants of the Czars are reportedly heavily armed and defending against expansions on their doorsteps. The descendants of the Buddha are advancing and rising in numbers. The Indians in numbers can do math as well as the British, or the French, or the German, or the Italian, and so on.
I have no idea if the polities in these other nations also have intelligence gathering methods that each wants to hide from the rest of the world or if they say that such is unbecoming of a polity and that we can have mutual confidences in each other. If such practice of hiding from the rest of the world is duplicated unilaterally everywhere else, the world must be a hopeless rogue place. If only one entity in one country does such, that must be the rogue place in this world.