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what do you think of this information?
Like you guys, I've been following this as it develops. What do I think? I'm starting to wonder if this was inevitable; fate, for lack of a more scientific term. When authority is provided power and secrecy, corruption follows. What would a corrupt power with secrecy do to maintain their power? Spy. Spy on dissidents, spy on free-thinkers, and eventually just spy on anyone. They'd excuse it as some threat to this and that, and as a necessary trade of a little freedom for security, which is almost always a lie, and it would grow and grow until priorities were so fucked up that everything collapses or people start fighting back.
where do you think it indicates that we, as a society, are heading?
War. Information war. I can't imagine a realistic playing out of this where the powers that be realize the error of their ways and scale it back of their own free will. It may not happen for a long time, but it seems inevitable. It also won't be a very clean war.
do you see this as a reversible trend?
Not until there's a fundamental and likely terrible shift.
do you think it justified? why or why not?
Of course not. For the longest time I was in fundamental disagreement with voices like those of Chomsky when they argued against government power just as much as they did corporate. I figured that the profit motive (unabashed, open greed) vs. the intended motive to serve the public put government power and corporate power in different places. Now, though, I'm starting to see that formerly distinctive line blur considerably. Any center of power too big is a bad thing. While I still respect certain other countries for managing to keep their shit together better than the United States, I realize now that it's because they aren't world powers on the right level yet to represent enough power. As soon as the United States and China cease to be the most powerful countries on earth, the next class will face the same corruption.
Privacy may die for a while for a lot of people.
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