My question is, by what authority does government cite to create a state of public surveillance, monitoring, oversight, coercion, etc?
I can tell you for a fact that there is no such power delegated to government. Anyone who says otherwise is ignorant of the principles upon which the Constitutional Republic of These United States of America was founded.
Your life, even in public, is still your private life. As long as you aren't infringing on the rights of others, nor injuring anyone else, without their consent, or damaging property that doesn't belong to you, then no one has any right to impede you in any way.
Liberty is the freedom to conduct oneself as you believe, without interference, and without government watching you waiting for an opportunity to force their will on you.
“In a free society, individuals have the right to do right or wrong, as long as they don’t threaten or infringe upon the rights or property of others.” ~ Mark Skousen (1947-) American economist, investment analyst, newsletter editor, college professor and author
Persuasion versus Force
“It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself—anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face ... was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime ...” ~ George Orwell [Eric Arthur Blair] (1903-1950) British author
his book, '1984'
“Police may have no right to privacy in carrying out official duties in public. But the civilians they interact with do.” ~ Judge Richard Allen Posner (1939-) American jurist, legal theorist and economist. Federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, Senior Lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School
U.S Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, ALCU of Illinois v. Anita Alvarez (2012) (Dissenting)
“The real danger is the gradual erosion of individual liberties through automation, integration, and interconnection of many small, separate record-keeping systems, each of which alone may seem innocuous, even benevolent, and wholly justifiable.” ~ U. S. Privacy Study Commission 1977
“Big Brother in the form of an increasingly powerful government and in an increasingly powerful private sector will pile the records high with reasons why privacy should give way to national security, to law and order, to efficiency of operation, to scientific advancement and the like.” ~ Justice William O. Douglas (1898-1980), U. S. Supreme Court Justice
Points of Rebellion, 1969
“If you mind your own business, you won't be minding mine.” ~ Hank Williams (1923-1953) Legendary country music singer
“The makers of our constitution undertook to secure conditions favorable to the pursuit of happiness... They sought to protect Americans in their beliefs, their thoughts, their emotions and their sensations. They conferred, as against the government, the right to be let alone – the most comprehensive of the rights and the right most valued by civilized men.” ~ Justice Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941) US Supreme Court Justice
1928
“Big Brother in the form of an increasingly powerful government and in an increasingly powerful private sector will pile the records high with reasons why privacy should give way to national security, to law and order, to efficiency of operation, to scientific advancement and the like.” ~ Justice William O. Douglas (1898-1980), U. S. Supreme Court Justice
Points of Rebellion, 1969
“Imagine the traditionalist as living in synopticon—a suspect that is the target of 24/7 viewing, indoctrination, and conditioning by progressive auditors. In other words, a 40-45 percent minority of Americans is relentlessly lectured, sermonized, demonized, and neutered by a 360- degree ring of prying institutional overseers. There is no escape. There is no respite. There is no quarter given.” ~ Victor Davis Hanson (1953-) American classicist, military historian, columnist, farmer
The Progressive Synopticon, November 18th, 2018
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences.” ~ C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), British novelist
"God in the Dock" (1948)
“It is easy to think the State has a lot of different objects -- military, political, economic, and what not. But in a way things are much simpler than that. The State exists simply to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life. A husband and wife chatting over a fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own garden -- that is what the State is there for. And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of time.” ~ C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), British novelist
“Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.” ~ John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) English philosopher and economist
On Liberty, 1859
“The busybodies have begun to infect American society with a nasty intolerance -- a zeal to police the private lives of others and hammer them into standard forms -- A Nation of Finger Pointers.” ~ Lance Morrow (1939- ) American author, writer, chiefly for Time Magazine
A Nation of Finger Pointers, Time magazine, Monday, Aug. 12, 1991
“Here in America, government began as a tool to assure freedom. It gradually turned into a hideously expensive political toy designed to redistribute your wealth and control most aspects of your business and private life.” ~ Mark Skousen (1947-) American economist, investment analyst, newsletter editor, college professor and author
“Today’s political leaders demonstrate their low opinion of the public with every social law they pass. They believe that, if given the right to chose, the citizenry will probably make the wrong choice. Legislators do not think any more in terms of persuading people; they feel the need to force their agenda on the public at the point of a bayonet and the barrel of a gun, in the name of the IRS, the SEC, the FDA, the DEA, the EPA, or a multitude of other ABCs of government authority.” ~ Mark Skousen (1947-) American economist, investment analyst, newsletter editor, college professor and author
Persuasion versus Force
“Open discussion of many major public questions has for some time now been taboo. We can’t open our mouths without being denounced as racists, misogynists, supremacists, imperialists or fascists. As for the media, they stand ready to trash anyone so designated.” ~ Saul Bellow (1915-2005) Canadian author, Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976
“All forms of tampering with human beings, getting at them, shaping them against their will to your own pattern, all thought control and conditioning is, therefore, a denial of that in men which makes them men and their values ultimate.” ~ Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997) Russian-British social and political theorist, philosopher, historian
Two Concepts of Liberty, 1958
“Communism and fascism or nazism, although poles apart in their intellectual content, are similar in this, that both have emotional appeal to the type of personality that takes pleasure in being submerged in a mass movement and submitting to superior authority.” ~ James A. C. Brown (1911-1964) Scottish psychiatrist
Techniques of Persuasion, 1963
My question is, by what authority does government cite to create a state of public surveillance, monitoring, oversight, coercion, etc?
I can tell you for a fact that there is no such power delegated to government. Anyone who says otherwise is ignorant of the principles upon which the Constitutional Republic of These United States of America was founded.
Your life, even in public, is still your private life. As long as you aren't infringing on the rights of others, nor injuring anyone else, without their consent, or damaging property that doesn't belong to you, then no one has any right to impede you in any way.
Liberty is the freedom to conduct oneself as you believe, without interference, and without government watching you waiting for an opportunity to force their will on you.
“In a free society, individuals have the right to do right or wrong, as long as they don’t threaten or infringe upon the rights or property of others.” ~ Mark Skousen (1947-) American economist, investment analyst, newsletter editor, college professor and author Persuasion versus Force
“It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself—anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face ... was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime ...” ~ George Orwell [Eric Arthur Blair] (1903-1950) British author his book, '1984'
“Police may have no right to privacy in carrying out official duties in public. But the civilians they interact with do.” ~ Judge Richard Allen Posner (1939-) American jurist, legal theorist and economist. Federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, Senior Lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School U.S Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, ALCU of Illinois v. Anita Alvarez (2012) (Dissenting)
“The real danger is the gradual erosion of individual liberties through automation, integration, and interconnection of many small, separate record-keeping systems, each of which alone may seem innocuous, even benevolent, and wholly justifiable.” ~ U. S. Privacy Study Commission 1977
“Big Brother in the form of an increasingly powerful government and in an increasingly powerful private sector will pile the records high with reasons why privacy should give way to national security, to law and order, to efficiency of operation, to scientific advancement and the like.” ~ Justice William O. Douglas (1898-1980), U. S. Supreme Court Justice Points of Rebellion, 1969
“If you mind your own business, you won't be minding mine.” ~ Hank Williams (1923-1953) Legendary country music singer
“The makers of our constitution undertook to secure conditions favorable to the pursuit of happiness... They sought to protect Americans in their beliefs, their thoughts, their emotions and their sensations. They conferred, as against the government, the right to be let alone – the most comprehensive of the rights and the right most valued by civilized men.” ~ Justice Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941) US Supreme Court Justice 1928
“Big Brother in the form of an increasingly powerful government and in an increasingly powerful private sector will pile the records high with reasons why privacy should give way to national security, to law and order, to efficiency of operation, to scientific advancement and the like.” ~ Justice William O. Douglas (1898-1980), U. S. Supreme Court Justice Points of Rebellion, 1969
“Imagine the traditionalist as living in synopticon—a suspect that is the target of 24/7 viewing, indoctrination, and conditioning by progressive auditors. In other words, a 40-45 percent minority of Americans is relentlessly lectured, sermonized, demonized, and neutered by a 360- degree ring of prying institutional overseers. There is no escape. There is no respite. There is no quarter given.” ~ Victor Davis Hanson (1953-) American classicist, military historian, columnist, farmer The Progressive Synopticon, November 18th, 2018
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences.” ~ C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), British novelist "God in the Dock" (1948)
“It is easy to think the State has a lot of different objects -- military, political, economic, and what not. But in a way things are much simpler than that. The State exists simply to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life. A husband and wife chatting over a fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own garden -- that is what the State is there for. And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of time.” ~ C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), British novelist
“Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.” ~ John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) English philosopher and economist On Liberty, 1859
“The busybodies have begun to infect American society with a nasty intolerance -- a zeal to police the private lives of others and hammer them into standard forms -- A Nation of Finger Pointers.” ~ Lance Morrow (1939- ) American author, writer, chiefly for Time Magazine A Nation of Finger Pointers, Time magazine, Monday, Aug. 12, 1991
“Here in America, government began as a tool to assure freedom. It gradually turned into a hideously expensive political toy designed to redistribute your wealth and control most aspects of your business and private life.” ~ Mark Skousen (1947-) American economist, investment analyst, newsletter editor, college professor and author
“Today’s political leaders demonstrate their low opinion of the public with every social law they pass. They believe that, if given the right to chose, the citizenry will probably make the wrong choice. Legislators do not think any more in terms of persuading people; they feel the need to force their agenda on the public at the point of a bayonet and the barrel of a gun, in the name of the IRS, the SEC, the FDA, the DEA, the EPA, or a multitude of other ABCs of government authority.” ~ Mark Skousen (1947-) American economist, investment analyst, newsletter editor, college professor and author Persuasion versus Force
“Open discussion of many major public questions has for some time now been taboo. We can’t open our mouths without being denounced as racists, misogynists, supremacists, imperialists or fascists. As for the media, they stand ready to trash anyone so designated.” ~ Saul Bellow (1915-2005) Canadian author, Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976
“All forms of tampering with human beings, getting at them, shaping them against their will to your own pattern, all thought control and conditioning is, therefore, a denial of that in men which makes them men and their values ultimate.” ~ Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997) Russian-British social and political theorist, philosopher, historian Two Concepts of Liberty, 1958
“Communism and fascism or nazism, although poles apart in their intellectual content, are similar in this, that both have emotional appeal to the type of personality that takes pleasure in being submerged in a mass movement and submitting to superior authority.” ~ James A. C. Brown (1911-1964) Scottish psychiatrist Techniques of Persuasion, 1963