From: Ten Steps to Close Down an Open Society: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-wolf/ten-steps-to-close-down-a_b_46695.html?view=print http://www.huffingtonp

From: Ten Steps to Close Down an Open Society: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-wolf/ten-steps-to-close-down-a_b_46695.html?view=print http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-wolf/ten-steps-to-close-... 4 Set up an internal surveillance system In Mussolini's Italy, in Nazi Germany, in communist East Germany, in communist China - in every closed society - secret police spy on ordinary people and encourage neighbours to spy on neighbours. The Stasi needed to keep only a minority of East Germans under surveillance to convince a majority that they themselves were being watched. In 2005 and 2006, when James Risen and Eric Lichtblau wrote in the New York Times about a secret state programme to wiretap citizens' phones, read their emails and follow international financial transactions, it became clear to ordinary Americans that they, too, could be under state scrutiny. In closed societies, this surveillance is cast as being about "national security"; the true function is to keep citizens docile and inhibit their activism and dissent.