Re: Noam Chomsky: A Surveillance State Beyond Imagination Is Being Created in One of
the government has us all under surveillance all the time; the NSA bosses say they don't do that sort of thing.
The fear is that the government or its surrogates (contractors) records every keystroke and every phone call in the country. Then they can go back later and use it if they need it. For anyone who read Orwell's book, "1984" knows the inevitable outcome. Those who have the information will eventually use it to nefarious ends. information is power, regardless how "innocent" one thinks he is. Make enough laws and nobody is innocent. Eleven-thousand new regulations last year, alone.
Snowden has said as much and the
Utah Data facility hasn't been built for nothing. Snowden goes on to say they don't limit collection to active calls, but can record seemingly turned-off phones. If you are within visual or audio range of a cell phone, they may be recording. Every time the U.S. government denies one of Snowden's accusations, he releases more documents to prove them wrong.
How does this activity affect us as individual citizens?
Let's assume you are a model citizen, but for whatever reason, someone like Snowden gets mad at you? Maybe you cut him off in a parking lot? Someone with access to all this data? Someone who isn't afraid to use it? Now, they aren't supposed to, but Snowden claims he could listen to the president's calls without supervision, so who can say? All that information is a lot of power. Let's say our Snowden surrogate gets mad, so he searches your calls, emails and posts to this forum? If he finds something he can take out of context, you're then put on watch lists. If he can't, he records you banging your wife and posts it to your co-workers. I'm just throwing out possibilities. Once the data is stored and available, all sorts of mischief may ensue. Mischief that can cost you your job, your family and your life. Believe me, when some government underling decides to persecute you, you remain persecuted for a long time.
Computers that can collect all that data, can also process, filter and find relational links.
Is the average citizen at risk today? Maybe not, but soon the power and abuse grows. The record grows longer. The list of relationships grows longer. The government's intrusiveness grows. Their ability to convince the public grows. First a few are targeted. Dinesh D'Souza, for example - wrote and directed some high-production value movies unflattering to the president. Next thing you know, they charge D'Souza of some obscure campaign finance law. A law he wasn't even aware of. His leftist critics say the standard, "ignorance of the law is no excuse," but with eleven-thousand new laws every year, who can learn them all? You don't make movies, you say? But, you do post here on the forums. Soon somebody is in power who doesn't like your opinion (as Obama didn't like D'Souza's). Soon, you are up on charges, real or imagined.
The die is cast when the laws and policies change to enable government abuse. Hitler took control in 1933, but it took six-years before he was attacking neighbors and a couple more, before he was running the ovens at full pace. The time to stop violations of the fourth amendment is when they first occur. If one waits for the internment camps, it's too late.
