Security V/S Liberty By T.S. Khanna, January 12, 2014.

Foundation for Better Government

(www.bettergovt.blogspot.com)

January 12, 2014

Security v/s Liberty

By T.S. Khanna, January 12, 2014.

Advanced technology has forced a seismic shift in opposing political ideologies: dictatorial governments will have to be less dictatorial for the sake of stability and democratic governments, less democratic for the sake of security.

Americans have come to regard liberty and privacy as their birthright.  But now security demands are compelling for a compromise.

Good citizens would welcome surveillance for preventive action to assure security.  However, they have a “bureaucracy phobia”: tempering and abuse of surveillance records by the National Security Agency (NSA) bureaucracy. 

Bureaucracies are immortal and ever expanding and bureaucrats work with a singular purpose of expanding their power and income.  Quiet power of a bureaucrat can be aphrodisiac.  Bureaucrats with coercive power and discretion are perceived as terrorists themselves.  Hackers are equally dangerous.

Circumstances demand that emphasis should not be on curtailing the necessary surveillance programs but on adopting the foolproof measures assuring that the records would be accurate, unalterable and there could be no possibility of abuse.

Some Newspapers have been supportive of Snowden, once a trusted worker at NSA, for not violating any written laws.  They ignore the fact that every citizen has an unwritten moral obligation of protecting the national interests.  This obligation is rooted in the conscience of every good citizen.  NSA Director believes that America is more vulnerable after Snowden’s disclosures.