The Hills Have Eyes And Such As Can Read

Almost always the power-greedy will try to do as much damage as can be got away with, at a particular place and time. Nearly as often, the government's own scholars will goad and stimulate officials to try for more power to do worse damage.
A government, so far as its officials approximate to holding complete totalitarian power, do not express love for diversity. Insofar as a society has resisted successfully the growth of official power relative to the citizenry, their officials will be found looking for whatever way they can get away with, to bring in those most likely to come into conflict with the existing population. More conflict between more diverse groups of residents can be expected to gain them more power, when methods involving calls to unity and harmony do not yield the increase of power that they want. These are inductive generalizations from history; they fit with what you know or maybe they don't. It is in this context, though, that one might read the following from Selwyn Duke:

"Last year’s scamnesty bill had widespread support among the powers-that-be, with the president, the Democrat majority and mainstream media all singing its praises. Yet it went down to defeat, slain by a new-media coalition of talk radio and blogosphere warriors. Working tirelessly to expose the truth and rally the grassroots, they became a David who slew a Goliath.
Forty-three years ago it was a different world. Ted Kennedy had co-authored the “Immigration Reform Act of 1965,” which created a situation wherein 85 percent of our immigrants hail from the Third World and Asia. He took to the Senate floor, claimed his brainchild wouldn’t change the demographic composition of the nation and passed the culture-rending bill under the cover of darkness.
This darkness was not absence of light but that of truth; it was a media blackout. With no Internet and little talk radio, mainstream journalists had a monopoly over the hearts and minds of America. And they knew best. The little people didn’t have to worry their pretty little heads about actions that would forever alter the face of the nation.
This is why the old media fears the new one. The latter watches the watchers, polices the police. It has cut into the Rathersphere’s market, causing a diminution of circulation, viewership and - this is what really gets their collars up — power. They can no longer propagandize with Tass-like impunity, for the e-hills have eyes. " from: The Race for the American Mind - Selwyn Duke on American Thinker
JB comments further: At the outset, the premiss was offered that the power-greedy will try for as much power to do as much damage as can be got away with in the here and now. What would draw them up short, feeling that they're not going to get away with something? Wouldn't it be especially that case where the potential victims are alert to what is occurring? Shining a light on bad doings can be effective, and this is one big reason why it is good that "the e-hills have eyes".