I was speaking with a friend online today regarding the NSA’s domestic surveillance program. Much to my dismay, he seemed to be fine with it. He’s proven himself to be an intelligent and persuasive guy in the past so I pressed him on it, hoping he would reveal some groundbreaking new argument that I hadn’t heard before. But unfortunately, he went with the same old clichéd line we’ve all heard a thousand times: “If you aren’t doing anything wrong, why do you care?”
Commence Face-palming in three, two, one… go.
Wrong. It’s a word we use everyday. But what does it mean? Let’s take a page from Justin Nafziger and ask the dictionary:
Wrong, adjective:
Unjust, dishonest, immoral
Well, okay then. Your argument seems to be somewhat flawed. Lots of activities don’t fit the definition of “wrong?,” but does that mean they shouldn’t be private? Are you really okay with someone observing you so long as the action you are performing or engaging in isn’t “wrong?”
Do you want people to watch you have sex (yes, I’m well aware that some of you do, but that’s a different topic) with your partner? Sex isn’t wrong. It’s a part of life – the reason that any of us even exist – so you’re okay with an audience?
What about taking a shit? I’m not sure if you’ve heard yet or not, but everyone poops. It’s a completely natural and necessary bodily function. But does that mean that you’re okay with defecating on stage while an audience of strangers looks on? Probably not.
The list of completely natural human functions goes on and on: Masturbating, urinating, crying (hopefully not all at once) and yes, communicating.
Just because something is not “wrong” doesn’t mean you automatically give up your basic right to privacy.
If you still disagree, that’s fine. Please feel free to send the NSA your email address and ask them to check in on you from time to time.
As for the rest of us, we’d prefer to keep out private lives, oh, I don’t know, private… regardless of whether or not you think we are doing anything wrong.
But thank you for your selfless service in helping the government fight terrorism. Maybe they’ll give you a medal or something.
Author: Nick Allison is a combat infantry veteran of the War in Iraq. He lives in Austin, TX with his wife, their children and two big, dumb, ugly mongrel dogs.
Please feel free to send your love letters and hate mail to nick.chaossection@gmail.com.
Twitter: @ChaosSection.com or @NickAllison80
chaos section 
The discovery of the malignancy of all men’s motives is a rather involved process, which, though simple, is profound.
Do we discuss this topic as americans, world citizens or merely men?
If, as americans, we may recognize that the overarching understanding of those who wrote the constitution, (the endorsement of which supposedly makes one an “american”), has been, not only abandoned, but intentionally sabotaged.
The necessary evil of government, whose power is to be contained, restricted, carefully circumscribed, has been over painted by many efforts over time to the benevolent face of government. Men who recognize the ploy of gaining power by the subtleties inclusive of many decalarations of appeals to the governed “for their own good”, easily see how men have surrendered their freedoms in empty hopes of a caring benefactor. Only those disabused of their vanity and own craven nature quite easily grasp that men can barely keep their own base lusts from ovetaking them, and are all but unfit to govern others. Thus, all government was to be eyed with a more than healthy dose of suspicion, it was truly a moral obligation. But moral exercise is painful, tedious, and often without palpable immediate benefit, the benfits which concentrated power can more easily afford to expend. Therefore the undertaking of such power of government, under the ruse of service, has always been simply the acquisition of more power. The notion of the “exceptional american” has also served this pursuit quite well, for it has kept a populace inured to the truth that men are all the same, at all times, and in all places. Being american does not grant one a disposition to benevolence and ability to resist a lust for power, and so we have devolved inot this self congratulatory fraternity of the blind who proclaim liberty (as though we invented its ideal and are the sole propritors of its distribution) while we submit to all manner of suspicions and intrusions by the men we allow to govern us.
What is your friends favorite Kool Aid flavor?
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