Sunday, May 4, 2014

Potential downfall of the US government due to Patriot Act

Jiajun Li
Section A02
Reading Reflection #5
In response to: The USA PATRIOT Act: A Sketch



       After 911, The USA Patriot Act was passed and it immediately permitted government with broader access to civilian's personal information. This Act reminds me of the Global surveillance disclosures happened last year when the globe mainly focused on Edward Snowden, an American computer professional, former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency. He firmly disclosed the US governmental conspiracy of censoring individual information in the name of "preventing potential terrorist attack". Such conspiracy exposed the government's hesitance in stabilizing the global situation. Were the government confident enough, it won't start censoring individual information of its citizens. As a student from China, I know what would be brought up if the government overwhelm its power in censoring individuals. It would cause civilian discontents, potential movements and eventually the downfall of the government. The film V for Vendetta and the novel 1984 had postponed a totalitarian authoritative government which censored all aspects of civilian's life and which eventually led to its downfall. The US is still far away from there, but were it not to stop, the US would be on its way. The government therefore needs a better way out to prevent terrorist attack besides censoring its own citizens.
               

Questions: How long would this keep going on? 

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