Why Libertarians Have Better Things to Worry About Than the NSA – Reason.com.
John Stossel has gotten a lot of flak from the “liberty movement” for a recent piece he wrote for Reason in which he basically dismissed the NSA scandal as something he “can’t get that worked up about.”
In all honesty, I basically agree with him, although for different reasons.
The main reason I can’t get worked up about this is because first of all, it doesn’t surprise me in the least. This is something I already figured the government was probably doing. Having my suspicions confirmed doesn’t do much for me.
Secondly, I have to ask all the conservatives and the libertarians who are somewhat sympathetic to the state (like Stossel), what exactly they would like to see happen here. What government response to this government overreach would satisfy them?
Hypothetically, let’s just suppose that Obama’s reaction to this scandal was to immediately call a press conference in which he said the following: “I had no idea about this scandal, but I find it completely morally reprehensible, in clear violation of the constitution, and I will not tolerate it whatsoever. I hereby order that the NSA be entirely shut down, and I will personally man the detonator to blow up their headquarters, which will be broadcast on live TV. Every single current NSA employee will be fired and prohibited from ever working in any level of government ever again. I will also sign an executive order permanently barring the collection of this type of data by any other agency, violation of which will be considered treason and will be punished by execution. As soon as these actions are complete, I will hereby resign the presidency, as this happened under my watch, and I take full responsibility.”
Let’s call that the “best case scenario” for the Glenn Becks of the world. My question is, do you REALLY think that would stop the government from spying on us? Do you really think they wouldn’t just set up a new, even MORE secret agency? Would President Biden be a significant improvement?
Some people just refuse to recognize that we have reached the point where we cannot rely on government itself to fix the problems that a bloated and tyrannical government caused. It is laughable to even consider that somehow, the President, or Congress, or the Supreme Court would put an end to the NSA spying program. Even if they said they did, why would any sane person believe them? Government is oppressive force, and it stands fundamentally opposed to individual freedom. It is corrupt not by coincidence, but by definition. The only way to reduce its power is to eliminate it completely. This starts by calling it what it is – beyond all repair. We solve this problem not by convincing Congress to tell the NSA to promise never to do it again, but by rendering government so impotent that it doesn’t have the resources to engage in such a program, and/or doesn’t have the reach, power, or capability to do anything useful with the data it already has or is still able to collect.
Dude, Where's My Freedom? 
The sad truth is that the State will live on, and what you have suggested will never take place.
The federal bureaucracy didn’t invent itself – ordinary citizens developed it and helped it grow since WWII. Ordinary people like Snowden, who himself trusted the federal government much more than any rational individual should ever do. Why else would he have “served” in the military? Or gone on to become part of the nightmarish intelligence agencies’ monster? It’s not as though there isn’t information out there – no one can truthfully claim they don’t know the beast is evil and dangerous. The fact is that most citizens’ values are precisely backwards, and they are happy to cede their earnings to the State and even to seek employment with them.
Based on the evidence shown by the history of political opinion in this country and the world at large, the liberty movement will tragically never be more than a mere splinter. Even if it were to grow to a substantial percentage of the whole population, its rate of growth is much too slow to save us. By then, we will be utterly powerless to stop the machine.
If you find that too pessimistic to believe, ask yourself the burning question – why isn’t everyone else in the NSA resigning like Snowden?
I think that’s too pessimistic. The reason everyone isn’t resigning is because they aren’t ready – yet. Remember, socialism didn’t take root in America in days, months, years, or even decades. They’ve been slowly indoctrinating and taking over the culture for over 100 years now. The statists have fought long and hard and most of them died without seeing the progress they dreamed of. But in the long term, they won.
So our challenge is to replicate that. And it starts one mind at a time. Snowden may seem alone, but he isn’t really. There’s also Bradley Manning, and there have been other NSA whistleblowers prior to Snowden (names currently escape me, Glenn Beck did a special on this where he interviewed like four of them).
If you’d like to hear more about the optimistic case for the liberty movement, I suggest you read Jeffrey Tucker or follow him on Facebook. That guy is the resident “liberty optimist” who seems to be counting on technology to render government obsolete.
http://lfb.org/today
https://www.facebook.com/jeffrey.albert.tucker