It's interesting how often the lessons of history need to be relearned. It doesn't matter that we can trust the government of today (to the degree we can, which

It's interesting how often the lessons of history need to be relearned. It doesn't matter that we can trust the government of today (to the degree we can, which isn't much, in my opinion), it's never wise to give governments ultimate power. Because it means that if the government then becomes untrustoworthy the results are much remedy the situation. Moreover, our little "free" bubble is not the entire world, the governments that most of the people of the world live under are not merely untrustworthy, in many cases they are exploitive or oppressive. Not the sorts of organizations you'd want to give the ability to snoop into everyone's business. Many folks are blessed with the fortune of living lives without turmoil or great consequence, and for those folks it may seem perfectly normal to allow the state into their affairs. But we should not force the state to be in everyone's affairs, we should not chose to live in a police state out of some fool notion that there will be less crime or less terrorism there. That's not how it ever works out.