Posted on 06/16/2013 6:54:20 AM PDT by newheart
Big Brother, The All-Seeing Eye of Sauron, The Panopticon, The Observers, The Watchers, The Surveillance State, The NSA. Whatever name we use to refer to it there is a fundamental urge to assume that being spied on is bad. (I agree.)
However, in every discussion of the problem there is always someone who will pop up with an off-the-cuff remark that goes something like this,"If you have nothing to hide, who cares?" or "I'm not doing anything wrong, so what difference does is make?"
On the surface that sounds reasonable, right? Those who are not guilty have nothing to hide, right?
I am particularly interested in the "Christian" variation of the argument that uses Luke 8:17, "There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed," so what's the big deal?
Here are my questions, submitted to the all-knowing (if not all-seeing) Freeper community.
1. Fundamentally what is wrong with being spied upon?
2. What is the problem with the "I have nothing to hide, who cares?" argument? (Or, if you prefer, you are most welcome to defend that position.)
Freepontificate to your heart's content. Remember, anything you say can be used against you in a court of law. (But of course no one is really listening?) I'm off to church to worship the only true (and trustworthy) omniscient being.
That is not the case!
Everything we have posted here will forever be available, not only to our current generation, but for generations to come.
Yes, over a century from now, descendants of mine will be able to pull up all my posts here on the Free Republic and determine that a) I had a guilty pleasure for Partridge Family music and b) I once served a grilled hamburger to one of my relatives that had mosquitoes on it.
And that's just scratching the surface!
Yes, the technology already exists to resolve our screen names here to our real names in actual life. In the future, it will be incredibly easy to data-mine every single thing we ever posted to the internet.
“What’s funny about this thread is that many here labor under the delusion that they are posting here anonymously.”
Truedat. There are no secrets on the Interwebs.
>>> I agree with you with one caveat. There are limits to submission.
Yes... I’m with you on that. God’s law is sovereign.
I therefore believe I am justified in refusing to submit to Obamacare for example.
Keeping a self-governing and sovereign nation state is a serious proposition.
It is not a matter of rebellion or revolt.
Independence is a spiritual matter.
Independence was not a legacy which is passed down and inherited.
No people can ever govern themselves if they are not capable of thinking for themselves.
When the citizens turn off the spin machines and start thinking for themselves, they will be at the half point to reclaiming the republic.
Even on this forum, people are starting to think for themselves.
The Bushbots have disappeared into cyber oblivion and the Republican Party elite is starting to receive the scorn that it deserves for turning away from the populist principles of Ronald Reagan.
“Even on this forum, people are starting to think for themselves”
You could get a little negative feedback on that one. ;-)
The fourth amendment, mentioned multiple times, is one of the strictures meant to keep the Federal government specifically a limited government. Government was understood to be raw power and letting it expand and exercise aspects of that power defeats the confines of a limited nature.
When it is not limited it then can easily become arbitary and the very definition of despotic.
I re-read that after posting it and realized it came off as a bit harsh. Too late....no ability to go back and edit posts here. My testiness was not directed at you. It is directed at all of the idiots that refuse to clearly see what this administration is up to.
Nevertheless....
my apologies.
Regarding Luke 8:17: This is not a prophecy that should make us happy. But it is a prophecy. Just as we’re told that Christians will be persecuted. Just a few clues so we don’t start wondering if the Lord is in charge. Forewarned is forearmed. That doesn’t mean we approve.
Don’t you love when we’re told the evidence was thrown out on a technicality? LOL. A technicality called the 4th amendment.
I helped my son do some research for a paper on the Fourth Amendment with regard to no-knock raids. (Deemed by English common law as “unreasonable”). This gathering of information could be viewed in similar fashion. And in some ways is worse as we don’t know that we have been violated.
Some excerpted points:
Lord Camden, the English Chief Justice made this famous statement:
“The great end, for which men entered into society, was to secure their property. That right is preserved sacred and incommunicable in all instances, where it has not been taken away or abridged by some public law for the good of the whole.”
[Of course the “good of the whole” could be twisted - like it was in the colonies.
And the internet spying of today could in many ways be likened to the British searches and seizures of the colonist’s political pamphlets railing against the British Government and King.
Why are there windows in bathrooms and clear glass shower doors?
>>Why are there windows in bathrooms and clear glass shower doors?<<
To INVITE observation/participation. I have yet to see a bathroom window that cannot be closed nor a shower down not on the inside of an opaque door that can be closed,
You should look at my question in the context of the “argument.”
Not a problem. This turns out to be a very emotional issue with strong and even unexpected issues from both the right and the left. That is largely why I was asking people to articulate the reasons for their own understanding of what is wrong. Thanks.
Is this true, Sauron?
You should be more careful in the wording of your analogies.
>>You should be more careful in the wording of your analogies.<<
My analogy was quite apt and very much on point. We surround ourselves when in intimate acts with opaque cloaks. Within those cloaks we have areas of transparency.
My analogy was spot on. Your analogy is more like a straw man.
You certainly stated it better than I could.
>>You certainly stated it better than I could.<<
Man, you should see someone about your insecurities.
I assure you that YOU are not who I had in mind when I said I want to learn.
Dumbing down wasn’t really my plan and I don’t want to start now.
It came naturally?
>>Dumbing down wasn’t really my plan
It came naturally?<<
Nope. You foisted it upon me.
This will be my last post to you since every time you post the board’s IQ points go down and I am providing opportunities for this to continue.
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