So you've read about Ed Snowden in the media? Is it just an individual's righteous act? Or does it go much deeeper and much lower, in every sense of the word? Is it corruption on top of corruption?
We’re truly on the threshold of an era where individual liberty might never recover from the attacks of the Welfare/Warfare State, aided by technology. You are perhaps too busy eating cheeseburgers to be bothered by the emergence of ‘the architecture of oppression’. That was the term whistle blower Edward Snowden used to describe how America’s National Security Agency (NSA) records phone calls, emails, text messages, Skype calls, and banks all that and any other kind of digital communication by ‘foreigners’.
‘If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to be afraid of,’ say the Zombies. ‘Besides, there are terrorists, drug dealers, money launderers and perverts out there. They’re the only ones who ever complain about invasions of privacy… If it makes us safer, isn’t it worth it?’
If the government can bank all of your digital data for the duration of your life, it’s only a matter of time before you become a suspect in a crime and get convicted. And once the permission is secured to ‘mine’ your data, you can be sure you’ll be found in violation of some law. Throughout history, people with this kind of far-reaching bureaucratic authority can’t resist the temptation to abuse it, mostly to punish political opposition but sometimes because they are petty psychopaths with enormous coercive resources at their disposal.
In Orwell's 1984, that's what "Big Brother is watching you" was all about. The Surveillance State wasn't merely curious. It wasn't merely trying to stamp out terrorists. It was part and parcel of control.
Your natural rights shouldn't be granted to you by the government. You don’t need anyone’s permission or consent to be free. In fact, democratic governments govern with the consent of the governed. We have power over them, not the other way around.
Do yourself a favour and read this article. Stay with it; read it twice, if necessary!
Then sign the petition here.
And, before you make another phone call, consider this:
