Recently there has been an explosion of the 'right to surveillance', 'licensing of freedom of expression, 'criminalizing defamation over the internet' and a string of other justifications that creep into what little freedom remains of people from US, to Europe, to Middle East and Asia. The interesting thing is that people seem not too bothered with it.
The common thread is that there is a need to root out terrorism, prevent cyber criminal activity, protect its citizens or merely that its citizens need to obtain the 'truth' from governments channels because the people cannot be trusted to make up their mind or they are incapable of making up their own mind or so it seems.
According to a recent study by Pew Research a substantial majority, or 56% of Americans, "say the
National Security Agency’s (NSA) program tracking the telephone records of
millions of Americans is an acceptable way for the government to investigate
terrorism, though a substantial minority – 41% – say it is unacceptable." Society it seems is dumbed down by the constant barrage of reality TV shows, talent shows (the entertaining type) that they are now incapable of appreciating enshrined basic human rights. A law that is passed does not make it either ethical or legal. Laws need to follow basic constitutional rights. More people die from traffic accidents and heart related diseases from each year than from terrorist acts. In 2011 Global Terrorism Index reported that there are under 5,000 people that have been killed as a result of a terrorist act. The majority of these incidents happen in the Middle East, Pakistan and Africa. In fact in 2012, only 17 people died in terrorist attacks.
Unfortunately American hegemony still rules and where it goes others follow. If the supposedly freest country in the world can steam roller over its constitution to infringe the privacy of its people and hand information to the few without strong protest, then what do other nations have to complain about? It legitimizes the continue gagging of humanity and the unseen hand of the threat of violence if you do not fall in line.
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety" Benjamin Franklin
It is impossible to grasp the meaning of the idea of sound money if one does not realize that it was devised as an instrument for the protection of civil liberties against despotic inroads on the part of governments. Ideologically it belongs in the same class with political constitutions and bills of rights. Ludwig von Mises - The Theory Of Money And Credit - 1912
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