Living with the surveillance state

Posted Oct 30, 2013 16:19 UTC (Wed) by ndye (guest, #9947)
In reply to: Living with the surveillance state by brouhaha
Parent article: Living with the surveillance state

everyone is being surveilled, including many who are known to be innocent
That's not how the world works. No one is ever "known to be innocent". Everyone who hasn't already been found guilty is a suspect.

In my understanding , it's more than "Everyone . . . is [at least] a suspect":

In the U.S.A. of my culture (as opposed to the U.S.A. I grokked upon growing up), everyone is an equal who acknowledges that our conscience asserts guilt of some failure at some time after birth.

Thus a jury returns no better than "not guilty of this charge" because no man can declare another innocent.

Knowing that everyone is predisposed to abuse any acquired power, the governing are to display behavior *better* than the governed.

Anyone in power willing to hide their work is already demonstrating a moral lapse, and their qualification for public office is expired, and the remaining public servants should be shining a light on their former colleague to ferret out any possible crimes, demonstrating their equality with the governed.

Failing to turn these rats out of office demonstrates the corrupted priorities of the public at large.