We distrusted foreign governments, and didn't much like our own. America's constitution created government partly to restrain government. In this century, we uneasily ceded exceptional wartime powers to our own government, because we were menaced by even worse governments overseas. But we still cherished the right to be left alone, and worried about Big Brother. Now, however, the private anarchy that some of us mistake for freedom threatens the security, and hence the liberty, of law abiding citizens.
Technology creates new forms of liberty and equality, as millions of internet users can testify.
But it is also an equalizer when it comes to terrorism. Today's threat is Little Brother. The mighty FBI, after all, took 17 years to capture the apparent unabomer, succeeding only because the man's brother turned him in. As a card carrying member of the ACLU, I can feel my loyalties being strained. The old categories and tests no longer work.