He see's you when you're sleeping.
He knows when you're awake,
He knows if you've been bad or good,
So be good for goodness sake!
from Santa Claus is Coming to Town
O Lord you have searched me and you know me
You perceive my thoughts
You discern my going out and my lying down
You are familiar with all my ways
...
Search me O God and know my heart; know my anxious thoughts
See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting
from Psalm 139
For he looks to the ends of the earth
and sees everything under the heavens.
from Job 28:24
By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
from 1 John 3:19-20
And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
from Hebrews 4:13
Given the large number of religious followers in this country and on this site, I find it not at all surprising that so many people are OK with the NSA spying. It all comes down to our degree of conditioning in and acceptance of the paternal authoritarian view of life. Those with strong paternal authoritarian beliefs are not only not upset by the spying revelations, they are relieved to know that such a close eye is being kept on "the bad guys" even if that means keeping track of everybody.
(And what these authoritarian followers fail to understand is that by casting such a wide net, even if their motives were pure, the NSA is trying to manage proverbial haystacks of data to find troublesome needles. They would likely be far more effective if they were to target their efforts to those who have actually raised suspicions. These concerns have been voiced in the past by national security critics and would make a substantial diary themselves.)
I actually saw this sentiment expressed in comments to a Daily Kos diary the other day by one of our resident long-term authoritarian followers. He opined that while those in other countries had to worry about terrorism, we in the USA can sleep sound at night knowing that the NSA is watching over us. And God keeps track of every little bird that falls ...
Another long time Kossack who is all gung-ho about the NSA spying is the same person who has carried a 3 year grudge against me. This because I once included her in a list of people who I referred to as "the president's most staunch defenders" or some equivalent term. So, some anonymous guy on the internet includes your name in a list and you get all bent out of shape about somebody "keeping lists", but when the government is scooping up every one of your communications, your purchases, tracking your location, and more - that is all hunky-dory. Unbelievable.
But as I said, this is not surprising. When you have been conditioned since infancy to be dependent on a strong Daddy archetype to protect you from harm, you grow up as someone who idolizes authority figures. And those whose beliefs include a strong deference to authority have no problem with being searched, spied upon, etc. because they believe it is the right of the authorities to demand their compliance, and it is their duty to comply with rightfully constituted authority. If you have anything to hide, then it is a damn good thing they caught you - you naughty boy/girl.
It's the first line of societal control by those in power who seek to maintain their power - the omnipresent watcher who sees everything you do. For little kids it's Santa - that jolly old elf who can bring joy on Christmas morning IF you are a good little child. For the older kids and adults it is God who is the watcher. And now the stakes are far higher. It's not just baubles on Christmas morning that are in the pot, it is your immortal soul! God has his eye on YOU, and if you fuck up its pretty much fire and brimstone all the way down.
And so it is with the NSA and government spying. It is meant to intimidate, squelch, stifle, inhibit political expression that is not acceptable to the power structure. There can be no sweeping change because the power structure is too well-positioned to knock off any leaders who may emerge. Everybody's got SOMETHING to hide, even MLK had his mistresses that Hoover tried to use to blackmail him into refusing the Nobel Peace Prize. But again, to those fully engrossed in paternal authoritarianism, this is all OK. Their betters - those with shit-tons of money who own our political process - DESERVE their riches and positions of power, and should not be challenged by poor people and dirty fucking hippies.
Part of the problem is that other aspects of religion and the paternal authoritarian paradigm include strong denouncements of any form of physical pleasure, especially pleasure resulting from sex or drugs. These taboos, some enshrined in law, are used to keep everyone under control, keep them from rocking the boat as it were. Case in point, Eliot Spitzer. He was refusing to back down from prosecuting Wall Street a few years back. Well hey, what do you know, a high-priced hooker scandal is all it took to bring him down. Not only did it stop his intended crackdown on WS corruption, it served as a warning to others - "Do NOT Fuck with us, we will fuck you like you've never been fucked before."
Some on Daily Kos have claimed that there is no evidence of any improper use of the NSA data, and therefore "no harm no foul." [And this really is a view that I have seen expressed by multiple commenters defending the NSA spying program - not a strawman argument.] But the thing is, how would we know if there had been? If they are using info on key people's private lives to extort policy positions, how would we know? The whole point of blackmail and extortion is to keep the embarrassing information from reaching the general public.
It so saddens me to see the degree to which this country has slid towards a surveillance state, but at last I understand the strategery of George W Bu$h... He perceived that the terrorists "hate us for our freedoms" SO, he hastened the process of taking away those freedoms in the name of fighting the terrorists. After all, if we no longer have those freedoms the terrorists should stop hating us, RIGHT?
God I hate this.