Re:Surveillance is not about protecting us. It's about control.
by nullsocket on Wednesday November 20, 2013 @10:35PM
(#6772908)
You are correct sir, my mistake.
"That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
Re:Surveillance is not about protecting us. It's about control.
by kordless on Thursday November 21, 2013 @01:04AM
(#6773305)
"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."
Re:Surveillance is not about protecting us. It's about control.
by Zigurd on Thursday November 21, 2013 @08:54AM
(#6774627)
The Declaration of Independence lists the reasons. How many apply to our situation today?
Re:Surveillance is not about protecting us. It's about control.
by Zigurd on Wednesday November 20, 2013 @11:50PM
(#6773104)
There is a rile of thumb when thinking about what the Framers had in mind: "What would King George do?"
King George did have redcoats going around searching homes, opening mail, etc. in "problem" areas. He did run a police state. It is very likely the Framers wrote the Constitution with that in mind.
"Unconstitutional" has become a lazy way to dress up a claim that something is bad. I'm not saying that what's going on with surveillance in the U.S. is a good thing, but you're not helping your cause here.
(For that matter, there's nothing about a "right to overthrow [a] corrupt government" in the Constitution either. nullsocket may be thinking of the Declaration of Independence, and its basis in the social contract theory of Locke's Second Treatise on Government.)