With enough information, anyone can gain knowledge. With enough knowledge and persuasion, anyone can gain power. So, with so much information available to anyone with an internet connection, why did everyone become fixated on fear-mongering, paranoia and conspiracies? Despite people gaining the ability to publish their own thoughts to millions of readers online, they have become more and more convinced of their own powerlessness under tyranny.
Although it is no bad thing that the people are more interested in the inner workings of their governments now, excessive fear cannot do any favors for anyone. In fact, a cowed people are only easier to govern and suppress than a confident people. What has happened to that tenet of democracy, the government should fear the people, and not the other way around?
If the government must fear the people, the people should act aggressively, not respecting authority, and reminding government that alienating the people will bring their downfall. Democracy, after all, is not a peaceful system but was created by the terrors of the Eighteenth Century, by promising a death sentence for anyone who tried to subjugate or disarm the people.
Our governments seek to monitor everything we say. It has reached a point where everyone is viewed with suspicion by a state at war with badly defined enemies, including much of its own population. In turn, the people rely on whistleblowers and organizations like WikiLeaks to know what their governments…