[PythonicAlpha]

The (once) "free world" that boasted to have the Stasi put to an end, are making things much worse now.

The Stasi had paper files and maybe kilobytes of data, that had to be processed by hand of some people -- our today's surveillance systems collect megabytes or gigabytes of data of everybody and can process it in milliseconds.

We Germans should know, what surveillance is all about and how an oppressive system starts out small but grows bigger and bigger. But with all our luxuries and the distractions we get, we forget, what our fathers had to learn the hard way.

We also will have to learn the hard way.

[pvg]

The Stasi had a lot more than kilobytes of data. It also managed to be far more effective at oppressing people than institutions we know of with petabytes of data.

[PythonicAlpha]

I said kilobytes per Person (it is clear, when you read in context). One page in a paper file normally has 2-4 kB.

Everything starts out small. Some institutions in the "free west" are already quite good in oppressing people.

Today, you already must be very carefully which books you read in the public library or buy at Amazon.

Because you, yourself don't feel it, does not mean, that it does not exist.

[pvg]

It's very difficult to argue about something that exists but only in the eyes of its proponents. Carl Sagan wrote this up nicely once:

http://www.godlessgeeks.com/LINKS/Dragon.htm

[PythonicAlpha]

Nice stories will not bring freedom back! (do you also have arguments, instead of ignoring them?)

Do you want to say, that Snowden, Manning and other Whistle blowers are not oppressed? Have you no eyes?? I guess not!!

(and this is only one small example of oppression, that everybody knows but most just ignore -- to live without disturbance -- very much like the people in former Nazi Germany).

To be clear about it: What happened to Manning alone, is a shame to any civilized society -- if he is guilty or not.

When the so called "Aluhuttraeger" where saying, that the US where spying on us, 10 or 20 years ago, everybody was laughing.

Some of those laughs have already stopped.

[pvg]

I have, indeed, no eyes although I'm less sure about the laughs.

[PythonicAlpha]

Laugh or not laugh, you can even ignore truth -- but when they some day stand at your door, it is to late.

It is amazing, that humans can not learn from history and even not understand, what is obvious.

Making fun and telling nice stories -- how paltry.