Over the last several months much has come to the attention of U.S. citizens about surveillance activity by the U.S. government. This surveillance was not restricted to spies, enemies of the state, and terrorists, but included the emails and phone calls of all of us. The surveillance apparently also included political leaders of nations friendly to the US.
I posted about the surveillance issue on my Facebook page. One of the most frightening responses I received was from an acquaintance who argued, "What's the big deal? I have nothing to hide so I don't see the problem. If the government wants to read my boring email that's up to them." All one need do to see the weakness of this argument is to look to history and discover that millions of law abiding citizens who thought they had nothing to fear: Jews in Hitler's Germany, Japanese Americans in the US after Pearl Harbor, Native Americans forced to reservations, government critics in Stalin's Russia--the list goes on and on.
Although many argue that government surveillance of US citizens post-911 is a legitimate and necessary act, the question I raise: Is surveillance by government oppressive?
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