[jdrobins2000]

Great points. I am not an anarchist in theory, but I agree with many of your points on a practical level. Balance of power is critical to maintaining a fair society, which was obviously violated by the NSA's actions, insofar as their power to misuse their information advantage was not appropriately constrained. Please forgive my ignorance on the matter, but what claims have been made regarding innapropriate actions taken based on the NSA's surveillance programs? Inappropriate meaning "decreasing fairness of outcomes in a real sense", not based on the theoretical potential for abuse of an asymmetric information advantage.

I'm a thoroughly pragmatic person. I share all of your concerns about abuse of power (which I see very real cases of everywhere). Yet something in my core believes the ultimate theoretical good may not be ultimate secrecy, but no secrets at all. (Yes, I realize the best path there is not a straight line, if there even exists a practical path).

An honest question for anyone who is passionate about secrecy/anonymity: is it something you inherently value or do you value it because you don't trust other parties to not misuse it? Hypothetically, if that were not possible because their abuse would also be known and they would be held accountable, would that alleviate your concerns?