government spying

When a government spies on its people, what does that tell you?

Maybe, they don't trust the people, or they are afraid of them....

Is that what you expect in a democracy?

Of course, the question about the USA is how much money is actually spent spying on USA citizens? How much spying is there? And what are the techniques used? Is there any oversight?

Might it be, for example, that there are no really scientific rules to decide who gets spied on and who gets left alone?

Could it be that time is wasted, and lives damaged because there is too much internal surveillance?

To mention only one example, I've heard that the National Security Agency recently needed to build a new enormous building to save "information" (so called) that they have collected, information about U.S. citizens. They are just saving that information "in case"... But I've written the word information in quotes to suggest that I am not convinced that the collection itself or the activity of collecting the stuff deserves respect or dignity. It is, in fact, an axiom of scientific method that you need good theory before you can collect good observations. And, in the case of spying on citizens, there is absolutely no good theory to back up the rather frenetic and mis-guided activities.

Speaking colloquially, and openly, this activity of collecting "info." sounds like paranoia, not a scientific or rational approach to anything. You might say: if so much attention is devoted to keeping an eye on citizens, might that be an unconscious confession that the government itself has something to fear--perhaps that if the ordinary people realized how little good the government does the ordinary people might insist upon a real change...for the better... maybe people would insist upon real democracy?

It's not as if scientific psychology or sociology were so well developed that you could actually make good predictions about human behavior. The tools are very crude

What counts as good predictions? Astronomy gives us an example. They are pretty good at predicting eclipses--with accuracy, down to the day and minute. Nothing like that can be found among the social sciences or "intelligence" experts.

Nothing similar by way of scientific rigor exists among those who regard themselves as members of the "intelligence community".