Drone Follies

There is increasing concern that government surveillance drones will undermine privacy. Then there is the safety concern: Consider the police drone that crashed into a sheriff’s tank during training.

This really is the kind of state the U.S. has become: One in which there is no real expectation of privacy from the government. First they were used in wars, and then in immigration control, and now in everyday law enforcement. How many drones will fill the American skies a decade from now? Two decades? Will it seem quaint for those of us who remember when law enforcement didn’t rely on such total militarization to chime in, once in a while, hearkening back to simpler days?

One more point: Remember when it was considered paranoid for conspiracy enthusiasts to speak of black helicopters in the sky, monitoring their every move? What do we make of a future in which this seems not to be a delusional fear at all, but reality—and for nearly everyone at all times? There will be less need for the government to target particular people when all are being surveilled. This is the future our political masters look forward to.