Throw in the draconian NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) signed into law by President Obama on December 31, 2011 whereby he can authorize the military to hold anyone, including American citizens indefinitely without charges and due process (to say nothing of the president's "kill lists" targeting anyone, anywhere for assassination), are we not on the road to totalitarianism, again cloaked in the guise of protecting the people, defending the nation AND all made "legal" by Justice Department memos but kept secret for reasons of national security?
Looking back in Nixon's day (quaint compared to today's standards) he had his "enemies list" compiled and monitored using illegal phone taps and petty break-ins. But that was during electronic technology's infancy.
With today's advanced satellite technology and monitoring ability George Orwell's prescient "1984" fictional novel has become all too real.
Many people in the U.S. appear to be oblivious or unconcerned to the insidious nature to which they are being monitored.
In the bad old Soviet Union the people knew the "enemy" and didn't say anything publically for fear of being sent to the Gulag.
We in the U.S. seem more like the Jews in 1933 Germany who didn't believe Hitler and his Nazi henchmen would really target them. For many Jews Germany was a sophisticated, advanced industrial society that included them, a culture that spawned the likes of composers and philosophers, Mozart, Bach and Beethoven, Kant, Hegel and Goethe. That was before "Krystallnacht" in 1938 that broke their spell of disbelief and finally made them aware of what was really happening.
We have our Constitution and the rule of law. We're the "good guys". So what if we have to sacrifice and accept a little less personal privacy.
But it's more than a simple invasion of privacy. It's "big brother" and the omnipresent, insidious national security surveillance state in operation. And its about to get more invasive.
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