An interesting glimpse at America's past and what is has to do with Modern America.

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

Well I really couldn't come up with a clever title for this thread but anyways, I've been reading a book called "The Last of the Doughboys" by Richard Rubin. Aside from the interviews with those last surviving men and women who fought and served during The Great War it has chapters on things such as music from the era from Tin Pan Alley, how and why some of these persons the author interviewed lived to over one hundred years, etc. So naturally there's a chapter about the laws of the day in the US. So of course it includes the Espionage Act of 1917, from which Section 3 is cited "Whoever, when the United States is at war...shall willfully cause or attempt to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States, or shall willfully obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States, to the injury of the service or of the United States, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment for not more than twenty years or both." And then in 1918 it gets even worse and much longer, "Whoever, when the United States is at war, shall... say or do anything except by way of bona fide and not disloyal advice to an investor or investors, with intent to obstruct the sale by the United States of bonds, or other securities of the United States or the making of loans by or to the United States...[or] willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States or the Constitution of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United States or the flag of the United States, or the uniform of the Army or Navy of the United States into contempt, scorn, contumely, or disrepute, or shall willfully utter, print, write, or publish any language intended to incite, provoke, or encourage resistance to the United States, or to promote the cause of its enemies, or shall willfully display the flag of any foreign enemy, or shall willfully by utterance, writing, printing, publication, or language spoken, urge, incite, or advocate any curtailment of production in this country of any thing or things, product or products, necessary or essential, to the prosecution of the war in which the United States may be engaged... and whoever shall willfully advocate, teach, defend or suggest the doing of any of the acts or things in this section enumerated, and whoever shall by word or act support or favor the cause of any country with which the United States is at war or by word or act oppose the cause of the United States therein, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or the imprisonment for not more then twenty years, or both: Provided, That any employee or official of the United States Government who commits any disloyal act or utters any unpatriotic or disloyal language, or who, in an abusive or violent manner criticizes the Army or Navy of the United States shall be at once dismissed from the service."

The author also pointed out that 27 out of the 48 states had enacted Sedition Laws to imprison anyone who for whatever reason opposed the war that the US was involved in. In one instance "One case I find particularly chilling is that of a traveling salesman who, while passing through Montana, made the mistake of referring, in conversation, to Mr. Hoover's food regulations as a "big joke"; he was arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to a term of seven to twenty years in prison. In all, nearly eighty men and women were convicted of sedition in Montana by the time the war ended. If you find yourself outraged over this, you may be gratified to learn that Montana's Governor did, eventually grant them all pardons. In 2006." As if that wasn't enough, the US Government backed and used groups of vigilante organizations with such names as: Liberty League, Nation Security League, Home Defense League, Anti-Yellow Dog League, The Knights of Liberty (really..), The Boy Spies of America and, The American Protective League which was founded by US Attorney General Thomas Gregory.
So 96-97 years ago anyone in the United States could be thrown in jail or fined or both for saying a bad joke, or saying that the Navy's uniforms looked silly, talking with a foreign accent that sounded odd, or being just plain lazy.

Now back to the present and my point, these days people in the US are worried, freaking out, wondering if they'll get killed by a drone if they speak out against their government, or putting their tin foil hats on so they won't get picked up by a spy satellite, or whatever their reason happens to be. Are the NSA programs really worse then what the US Government did back in the 18 months the US was in WW1? Well let me ask you these hypothetical questions. Have you seen a poster like this in 8 years?
Probably not. Have you been thrown in jail for telling a joke about the government, or something in the military is ugly, wrong, or just plain dumb or because your just being an on-the-job slacker? Again probably not.
Has some random person started chatting you up in a bar asking you questions about what your opinions on what the government is doing or why their doing whatever it is and if you give the wrong answer your on a one way trip to jail? Well you probably know that answer yourself.

Now I know that their are people who dislike, disagree, or downright hate what the NSA is doing, and there are those who are think the opposite and some on the fence. But is it really all that surprising that the NSA is using the Internet for the purposes of spying, or whatever? It really shouldn't be, as that's the way things advance. If there's millions of people on the internet and that's the best place for the NSA to look, as not only are enemies of the US online, the places for a possible attack are advertised online. Now I'm not going to say if I think what the NSA is doing is right or wrong, I'm just trying to look at this from another point of view.
This also begs for one of those "what-if" questions to be asked. So what-if the US didn't have the NSA, and there was an attack somewhere on US soil that could of been prevented by something like the NSA? Well the answer would probably be thus: The American people outraged by the fact that this attack could of been prevented, blame the government for not preventing it. The government in response says it will do a better job if protecting its citizens and therefore creates an agency that specializes in the tracking of enemies of the United States, and then were back to square one. Or there's the possibility of the government not doing anything. Which do you think would happen?