Free speech important
Why is free speech important? Why is spying on private speech bad?
It may be that some day you live in a nation that treats all citizens equally, that actually allows freedom and equal protections. I don't, I live in the United States in the early 21st century, where we still have groups of humans that we treat as less worthy than other groups. This has been true going back as far as you can look, and will continue to be true for at least a generation or two.
Because not all are equally protected, it may be that some day you need to be on the gray side of a law to effect change, to force the system to do what is right over what is law. How many people were jailed for unruly conduct while using their freedom of assembly right to force desegregation? How many women behaved badly to gain equal rights to men? How many people still fight those good fights because we still aren't there yet?
To quote a popular fictional leader: "They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave."
There lies the paradox of a free and liberated society. The disobedient defier of rule is just as important as the rules they break. They keep the system honest, they keep the system transparent, and they make you notice when things are broken. Not every act of rebellious rowdiness is a meaningful and sincere effort, but so very many are. We need them just as we need oxygen and water.
The government is spying on you, right now. Somewhere on a magnetic platter is the knowledge that yesterday you spent an hour doing quizzes on Facebook, or that you looked at new shoes over lunch, or that you emailed your ex-boyfriend while waiting for your current boyfriend to arrive for a date night. The NSA has this and more.
Why though does the NSA dragnet communications? We are told that it is for national security. This is a pretty good answer, it is easy to explain that we want to prevent another 9/11 and that this is a tool towards that end. I do not doubt the honesty of this statement, nor the intent of the men and women that built it. It may become a highly effective tool. What I question though is the value. I feel that the potential for good is crushed by the muting effect government observation has. This breaks the balance, yang is overpowering yin.
It may be that some day you live in a nation that treats all citizens equally, that actually allows freedom and equal protections. I don't, I live in the United States in the early 21st century, where we still have groups of humans that we treat as less worthy than other groups. This has been true going back as far as you can look, and will continue to be true for at least a generation or two.
Because not all are equally protected, it may be that some day you need to be on the gray side of a law to effect change, to force the system to do what is right over what is law. How many people were jailed for unruly conduct while using their freedom of assembly right to force desegregation? How many women behaved badly to gain equal rights to men? How many people still fight those good fights because we still aren't there yet?
To quote a popular fictional leader: "They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave."
There lies the paradox of a free and liberated society. The disobedient defier of rule is just as important as the rules they break. They keep the system honest, they keep the system transparent, and they make you notice when things are broken. Not every act of rebellious rowdiness is a meaningful and sincere effort, but so very many are. We need them just as we need oxygen and water.
The government is spying on you, right now. Somewhere on a magnetic platter is the knowledge that yesterday you spent an hour doing quizzes on Facebook, or that you looked at new shoes over lunch, or that you emailed your ex-boyfriend while waiting for your current boyfriend to arrive for a date night. The NSA has this and more.
Why though does the NSA dragnet communications? We are told that it is for national security. This is a pretty good answer, it is easy to explain that we want to prevent another 9/11 and that this is a tool towards that end. I do not doubt the honesty of this statement, nor the intent of the men and women that built it. It may become a highly effective tool. What I question though is the value. I feel that the potential for good is crushed by the muting effect government observation has. This breaks the balance, yang is overpowering yin.