Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Citizens and the State: The Problem Is Bigger Than You Think

“This abuse of state power,” writes Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei about the U.S. government’s surveillance of U.S. citizens, “goes totally against my understanding of what it means to be a civilized society.”
Weiwei has a better understanding of important things than Americans who find nothing wrong with the NSA’s domestic spying. According to last week’s polls, those Americans are in the majority. If you have done nothing wrong, many say, then you have nothing to hide. Really? We are supposed to believe the federal government does no wrong. If so, then by this logic we should declassify everything.
(There is some cold comfort in the poll, which shows that Democrats and Republicans support surveillance less when the other party holds the Oval Office. So some support for the NSA’s activities may have more to to with team-sports loyalty than deep-rooted conviction.)

http://reason.com/archives/2013/06/17/citizens-and-the-state-the-problem-is-bi

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