The National Security Agency (NSA) has been in the news ever
since Edward Snowden exposed government documents showing that the NSA has been
spying on virtually all Americans and collecting massive amounts of data.
Some Americans don’t think it is that big of a deal. They figure that as long as they are
not doing anything illegal, then they have nothing to worry about. To a certain extent, they are probably
right. As long as you are not a
major target, then your electronic communications and telephone conversations
will likely never be seen. There
aren’t enough people at the NSA to look through billions of pieces of data
coming through every day.
With that said, this is a critical issue in regards to
liberty, and really the future of our society. If the NSA is allowed blanket spying on everyone, then the
people at the NSA are in charge.
They are practically running their own dictatorship. The people there are more powerful than
the president, the chair of the Federal Reserve, or any of the members of
Congress.
You might say that Congress can always revoke funding or
tighten restrictions on the NSA.
While technically true, is this really realistic? If the NSA has been collecting data on
all members of Congress, only those with truly nothing to hide would dare
oppose the NSA. The NSA can bribe
almost anyone that it chooses.
How many congressmen live a clean enough life that they
would be willing to oppose the NSA and risk having everything exposed to the
public? It doesn’t even have to be
as bad as doing something illegal.
It doesn’t even have to be cheating on a spouse or getting drunk at a
party. It could be anything. It could just be conversations about
other individuals that you wouldn’t want others to hear. It could be a medical condition that
you would prefer not to be known.
How many people are there in this world that would be
willing to make public knowledge everything he or she has said and done in
their life? Almost everyone wants
some kind of privacy and everyone has their embarrassing moments.
The NSA is a giant monster right now that needs to be
destroyed. Edward Snowden tried to
do a favor to the American people by telling them about criminality inside the
government. Yet some are actually
blaming Snowden for being a traitor.
Yes, he was a traitor to the U.S. government that was
engaging in criminal behavior. To
the American people, he was trying to be a patriot and a hero.
The only way to stop the NSA now is to shut it down. You can’t tinker around the edges, as
Obama’s speech indicated, and expect anything significant to change. It seems that the NSA is essentially
running the country now and the only possible way to stop it is by massive
opposition by the general population.
There needs to be so much pressure put on Congress and Obama
that they fear the public opposition more than they fear the NSA and the
secrets they hold. There is no
other way.
Americans have been told what their own government is
doing. This is not about terrorism
vs. security. This is about
liberty vs. tyranny. Terrorists
are not a threat to liberty unless the people are tricked into believing that
terrorism is the biggest threat.
The biggest threat to the American people is their own
government, just as we have seen so many times in history.
Just because you supposedly have nothing to hide, it doesn’t
mean that you have nothing to fear.
The government has a monopoly on the use of force, yet many people will
worry more about a company obtaining their private information than the
government.
A private company can only harm you by doing something
criminal or by handing over your data to the government
If you are going to be fearful of something, it should be the entity that can use force against you and get away with it.