The US's relationship with surveillance is something that has always been tumultuous. Going as far back as the splitting of our nation from the redcoats, the independence movement had meetings in secret so as to avoid the watching eye(s) of the British empire. That was back when the US was the underdog though, and didn't benefit from being the one on the other side of the looking glass. Fast forward a few centuries, and you get US government gleefully wiretapping suspected mafia and mob members, attempting to get the evidence that they needed to throw them in jail- Which they did, of course. This successful usage of new surveillance technology made it more apparent to the government that this was something that they could use in more ways, culminating in the Watergate scandal that every other scandal seems to be suffixed with today. This was still back in the 1970's though, when public opinion of surveillance was horror instead of apathy. Nowadays...well, that's going to be in the next post in this junior-theme extravaganza.
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