I’m a longtime subscriber to an Internet [3] mail list that features items from smart, thoughtful people. The list editor forwards items he personally finds interesting, often related to technology and/or civil liberties. Not long after the Guardian and Washington Post first started publishing the leaks describing the National Security Agency’s vast surveillance [4]dragnet, an item appeared about a White House petition [5] urging President Obama to pardon Edward Snowden [6]. The post brought this reply, among others:

‘Once upon a time I would have signed a White House petition to this administration with no qualms. Now, however, a chilling thought occurs: what ‘watch lists’ will signing a petition like this put me on? NSA [7]? IRS? It’s not a paranoid question anymore, in the United States [8] of Surveillance.’

As we Americans watch our parades and fire up our grills this 4 July, the 237th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence – the seminal document of the United States – we should take the time to ask ourselves some related questions: how did we come to this state of mind and behavior? How did we become so fearful and timid that we’ve given away essential liberties? Do […]