As I was reading a news item today on the “ars technica” web site, I wondered how many people are still under the delusion that the details of their lives are private. In truth, our online privacy is a complete illusion. It has been for quite some time.
I have previously pointed out, here and in my blogs on other sites, how the NSA has been watching the email, chat, Twitter, file transfers, web browsing, etc., of Internet users for quite some time. I’ve also pointed out how the RIAA and MPAA have had hackers poking around into the personal files of individuals for years. Both facts have been documented in many places, including major TV news shows. I’ve also pointed out the documented cases of thousands of individuals being falsely accused and still being forced to pay huge fines due to the practice of extortion by the RIAA and MPAA.
Yet, there is still no widespread public outcry. The technical media recognize the implications of this totalitarian behavior, yet the average Joe keeps going about his daily routine as if nothing has happened. I guess he figures as long as he isn’t one of those 8,000 people paying multi-thousand dollar fines for something he didn’t do, then it isn’t his problem.
This makes me wonder. Is freedom dead in the United States? In the future, is some other country going to have to come and rescue us from our human rights-abusing government like we rescued Iraq? Are our leaders so stupid and clueless that they don’t see they are pushing us down the exact same path that led those other countries into the position of needing to be rescued? Based on what I’ve seen, our leaders really are that stupid. Or perhaps they are so overcome with their own lust for power and control that they don’t see the parallels between their behavior and the early days of those regimes. That, in itself, is a bad sign for the future.
So what can we do about the steady decline of our freedoms in this nation? Well, you could write your representatives in the capitol, but to be honest, I think we are so far past those power-crazed morons listening to their constituents that it would do no good at all. They are paid far more by the people doing the spying than they are by us (in one way or another).
I personally think a better approach is to spread the word about what is going on to everyone you know. Educating and inspiring the masses is our only hope. Then, we can simply vote these jerks out of power when the opportunity arises. Just make sure we replace them with people who still listen. I guess this assumes that they haven’t already rigged the voting process. *sigh*
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