Why is the NSA spying on ordinary people?

There might be a few bad actors, but all in all, folks in the NSA, and the military in general, actually think they are defending America from enemies. They are not far from wrong. There are actually some significant conflicts around the world, a lot more dirty stuff than what you hear from the Snowden disclosures. We American civilians are generally pretty sheltered from all of that. We actually think we're the good guys.

So the root of the problem is that we have conflicts at the world stage. If there were no conflicts, there would be no need for the military or intelligence agencies. It is that simple.

That might sound outlandishly impractical. Of course everyone has conflict. That's a given, right? Fighting over limited resources. Ideology. Unending cycles of revenge. These are rooted in human nature and emotions, stuff that can change, stuff that every single human has to deal with and learn how to handle. These concerns on privacy, while disturbing, are a distraction -- at best, a stepping stone for each of us to deal with the real issue: human nature.