Lucille
11-06-2013, 10:45 AM
Great. The tyranny of the majority sheeple. You know, I have nothing to hide. The PTB can't blackmail me, I don't engage in illegal activities, and am not a terrorist. But it unnerves me nonetheless. It's not natural to be spied on 24/7. This people in this country are suffering from mass insanity.
“The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. "Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives, that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does." They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental sickness. These millions of abnormally normal people, living without fuss in a society to which, if they were fully human beings, they ought not to be adjusted.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited
Writing in Brinegar v. United States, Justice Jackson elaborated (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?422999-Letter-From-Edward-Snowden%E2%80%99s-Father-And-His-Lawyer-Bruce-Fein-To-President-Obama):
The Fourth Amendment states: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
These, I protest, are not mere second-class rights but belong in the catalog of indispensable freedoms. Among deprivations of rights, none is so effective in cowing a population, crushing the spirit of the individual and putting terror in every heart. Uncontrolled search and seizure is one of the first and most effective weapons in the arsenal of every arbitrary government. And one need only briefly to have dwelt and worked among a people possessed of many admirable qualities but deprived of these rights to know that the human personality deteriorates and dignity and self-reliance disappear where homes, persons and possessions are subject at any hour to unheralded search and seizure by the police.
Poll: Public Supports NSA Spying On Their Email, Neighbors And Foreign Leaders
http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/05/poll-public-supports-nsa-spying-on-their-email-neighbors-and-foreign-leaders/
Despite a torrent of outrage from the press, world leaders, and the United States Congress, most Americans still approve of the National Security Agency’s surveillance practices. Most importantly, public opinion barely budged a percentage point since the NSA’s global phone and Internet spy network was first revealed.
We even polled whether Americans support the near universally condemned practice of spying on European allies.
Yep, they support that one, too. The wonderful thing about the Google Surveys tool we use is that respondents can also comment on their opinion, which gives us some insight into their reasoning.
NSA Spying “Acceptable” The best question we have to determine any trends in public opinion is whether Americans think the NSA practices are “acceptable”. Since 2006, that number has hovered a little over 51 percent.
[...]
Investigating Terrorism > Privacy Philosophically, most Americans (56 percent) feel it’s more important to “investigate terrorist threats” than to “not intrude on privacy.”
[...]
Government Is Omniscient If the previous data hasn’t sent our libertarian readers screaming in a fit of big-government rage, this next data point should tip them over the edge. A whopping 43 percent of Americans think the U.S. government has collected and viewed the contents of their emails and/or phone calls.
[...]
Either way, spying on +100 million Americans would require an extraordinary act of Congress and a budget for the NSA somewhere north of America’s current debt. Respondents, however, are not concerned:
–”don’t care”
–”don’t know but i have nothing to hide”
–i don’t care
–”it’s possible”
–”let’s hope so”
–”maybe”
[...]
Conclusion As we’ve written about before, the American public has widely supported the NSA’s activities before and after the scandal. I’m no fan of the secretive spying, but if the government appears to be acting slowly on surveillance reform, it could be because they’re responding to constituents.
“The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. "Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives, that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does." They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental sickness. These millions of abnormally normal people, living without fuss in a society to which, if they were fully human beings, they ought not to be adjusted.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited
Writing in Brinegar v. United States, Justice Jackson elaborated (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?422999-Letter-From-Edward-Snowden%E2%80%99s-Father-And-His-Lawyer-Bruce-Fein-To-President-Obama):
The Fourth Amendment states: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
These, I protest, are not mere second-class rights but belong in the catalog of indispensable freedoms. Among deprivations of rights, none is so effective in cowing a population, crushing the spirit of the individual and putting terror in every heart. Uncontrolled search and seizure is one of the first and most effective weapons in the arsenal of every arbitrary government. And one need only briefly to have dwelt and worked among a people possessed of many admirable qualities but deprived of these rights to know that the human personality deteriorates and dignity and self-reliance disappear where homes, persons and possessions are subject at any hour to unheralded search and seizure by the police.
Poll: Public Supports NSA Spying On Their Email, Neighbors And Foreign Leaders
http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/05/poll-public-supports-nsa-spying-on-their-email-neighbors-and-foreign-leaders/
Despite a torrent of outrage from the press, world leaders, and the United States Congress, most Americans still approve of the National Security Agency’s surveillance practices. Most importantly, public opinion barely budged a percentage point since the NSA’s global phone and Internet spy network was first revealed.
We even polled whether Americans support the near universally condemned practice of spying on European allies.
Yep, they support that one, too. The wonderful thing about the Google Surveys tool we use is that respondents can also comment on their opinion, which gives us some insight into their reasoning.
NSA Spying “Acceptable” The best question we have to determine any trends in public opinion is whether Americans think the NSA practices are “acceptable”. Since 2006, that number has hovered a little over 51 percent.
[...]
Investigating Terrorism > Privacy Philosophically, most Americans (56 percent) feel it’s more important to “investigate terrorist threats” than to “not intrude on privacy.”
[...]
Government Is Omniscient If the previous data hasn’t sent our libertarian readers screaming in a fit of big-government rage, this next data point should tip them over the edge. A whopping 43 percent of Americans think the U.S. government has collected and viewed the contents of their emails and/or phone calls.
[...]
Either way, spying on +100 million Americans would require an extraordinary act of Congress and a budget for the NSA somewhere north of America’s current debt. Respondents, however, are not concerned:
–”don’t care”
–”don’t know but i have nothing to hide”
–i don’t care
–”it’s possible”
–”let’s hope so”
–”maybe”
[...]
Conclusion As we’ve written about before, the American public has widely supported the NSA’s activities before and after the scandal. I’m no fan of the secretive spying, but if the government appears to be acting slowly on surveillance reform, it could be because they’re responding to constituents.