Surveillance and Paranoia

Hey everybody.

I've got a few topics ready to go for the next few blogs, including a great one about the 22 secrets of storytelling from Pixar, which was sent to my by my brother Chris, and the first chapter of the Magic World story. (book?)

But then I was reading something on Reddit today, that opened up one of my big opinion doors, and now I have to let this beast out.

Okay, everyone's all up in arms about the NSA and how much information they have, and illegal wiretapping, and all kinds of other stuff.  Now in principal I agree that this is a moraly questionable practice, with the potential for all kinds of abuse, and I hope there's some kind of oversight. People are people, and while I think most of us are pretty good, there are those who would let such power go to their heads.

But I can't help but wonder why any of this matters. I'm a natural skeptic, so it's in my nature to question things, and when I look online the things I find answers like "what's legal today might be illegal tomorrow" and referrences to Hitler, and the Jews, and George Orwell's 1984, and "Thought Crime."

And I can't help but think how alarmist and paranoid that sounds. I'm not saying it couldn't happen, history shows us that it certainly could. But right now we are living in an age of information. This is the generation that saw the internet take down a dictator. They used our huge information network to do something that would have been impossible only about 15 years before.

So I can't help but wonder what exactly people are afraid of. What is it they think the government is going to do with their information. So far I haven't heard of anyone being arrested or detained based on the information the NSA has gathered. I haven't heard any specific examples of anyone having their "liberties compromised" as a result of the NSAs surveillance.

Also, the information they're collecting is being collated, and compiled as statistics in a database somewhere. It's not like anyone's looking at most of it. This blog for example might -MIGHT- be looked at by some NSA analyst somewhere, who will flag it as harmless, then chuckle about this portion and how oddly accurate it is... or how stupidly inaccurate. Either way he or she will pass this by and look for something more substantial. And that's IF it's looked at by a real person at all.

There are also those who think that there isn't enough evidence to show that the surveillance has done anything to curb terrorist attacks. Of course we wouldn't hear about those plots that get foiled, as they want to avoid releasing any information to other terrorist cells. It's possible. Who knows? Bombings happen, but I can't believe that anyone would think that it hasn't done at least some good. Do you think the government would keep spending money on a venture that didn't show any gains? Especially if the money could go into their own pockets?

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I'm not concerned at all, I just don't see how it affects anybody yet. I mean hell, Ed Snowdens leaks told what information was being gathered, and how, but he never said how they were using it.

So really it all comes down to this: How are they using our information? How does them having our information specifically threaten our freedoms? In what way COULD they use our information? What reason would the government or the NSA have to persecute you (in a generic sense) or anyone you know unless you've done something wrong? I'd be happy to accept real rational answers of things that have happened, with evidence.

Of course it's always possible that the government is trying to hide the evidence of their use of our information. I can buy that. But this is the same government that let Ed Snowden get to Moscow. This is the same government that didn't know about WikiLeaks until Julian Assange decided to make a movie about it. (okay now I'm just being sarcastic.)

But seriously you can't just live in fear. The media is making a huge deal about this because their entire job revolves around you watching them. and they know you'll watch if you're afraid not to.

Who knows? Maybe after writing this I'll mysteriously "disappear" and everyone will gasp and say "Ohmygosh he totally got abducted, and now they're taking him to Gitmo to waterboard him!"

But I doubt it.

As always though comments and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks for Reading!