Surveillance is power.
When surveillance become ubiquitous, we place utmost faith and trust in those performing surveillance to use that power justly.
And as we all know… power corrupts.
If we wish to become a surveillance society, we must have checks and balances on surveillance, just as we do with other forms of government power – if not more so.
To do otherwise is to give utmost power to those performing surveillance – the ultimate result of which will be the collapse of a free, democratic society.
It is important for everyone to understand these issues if only because this is still our government. If we remain ignorant of the issues, our government will remain ignorant of the issues, and they will slip through the cracks and we will wake up to a police state without even knowing it. And you can kiss your civil liberties, your privacy, your old way of life goodbye.
And I seriously doubt anyone really wants that.
