While I agree with concerns over privacy I still think that overall, our current obsession with it will actually have detrimental long term results because of t

While I agree with concerns over privacy I still think that overall, our current obsession with it will actually have detrimental long term results because of the resulting cynicism that it is creating. Because surveillance has continued or increased overtime regardless of which party controls the government, it creates a false equivalency that has convinced a lot of people that "its all the same" and that only some kind of dramatic (and likely violent and disruptive) revolution will solve the problem, while most of us have done little or nothing to actually change things short of complaining about them. How many people on these forums have contacted their representatives on this issue? How many have considered running for office themselves? My guess is we've all spent more time griping to each other and on online forums that are not monitored by government (for opinions at least, they unfortunately might be monitored for other reasons) than we have on any kind of productive effort. Privacy is a big concern, but is it as big as nuclear proliferation? Is it as big of an issue as climate change (no, I would say). Many of us who live in the US currently can afford to be worried about our privacy, we're mostly comfortable, safe, and well fed and can be concerned with our privacy despite the fact that it doesn't impact almost any of us. On top of that, the cynicism created by surveillance has convinced many people to waive their right to vote because they assume, correctly in many cases, that surveillance will continue in some form under any candidate, despite the fact that many other important (in some cases more important) issues will be treated very differently. I am not debating that it is an issue but the truth is, I am more concerned for the many people in the richest nation on earth that don't even have enough access to computers and the internet to even be worried about surveillance and its hard to be surprised that this issue doesn't resonate with many people. We need a public discussion on this issue and we need to debate what privacy we're willing to give up for our safety as law enforcement has less and less ability to monitor criminals. The sad thing is that if governments had been up front with their citizens and acknowledged the challenges in combating crime in an era where wiretaps and other previously available tools were becoming obsolete people might have been willing to accept intrusions into their privacy with acceptable civilian oversight; instead it was done without our knowledge and consent and now I'm afraid we'll collectively chop off our own nose to spite our face.