Why are people "surprised" or "outraged"?

   There's been a lot of "news" reports by the media lately about our government collecting tons of data on us. I just can't wrap my head around why people are finding this a shock.

   With all the horror stories in the news and all the outright fear-mongering by politicians, the media, and everyone else that has an agenda of one kind or another, you might think that the general public would have become numb. I mean, how long can a person be blasted with fear and horror before their brains just turn that part off? Does it even work that way? Maybe long-term exposure to such things just makes people paranoid. I don't know, but there's probably been a few papers written about it.

   Anyway, back to what I was saying.

  Ever since 9/11 there's been this big push to find and stop terrorists before they can attack U.S. soil. The Average Joe on the street, prompted in part by the aforementioned fear-mongering, has been willing to give up rights one by one in the name of safety. This, of course, proves that the 9/11 attack did it's job. It worked. It frightened a nation. That's the basic purpose of a terrorist attack; to cause terror in as many people as possible.

   Fast forward to today. The media, in another attempt to gain more ratings, is racing to tell Average Joe about the government collecting personal data on U.S. citizens. How can this possibly come as a surprise to anyone? If you scream at someone to do something - anything - to protect you from the bad man, you shouldn't be surprised if they do that "anything"! You've also given up your right to be outraged about it. You asked for it. You screamed for it. You begged for it. Now you've gotten it and you want to be outraged? Too fucking bad.

   Now, don't get me wrong here, I don't like the idea of any government collecting personal data on the citizenship as a whole, which seems to be what's happening now. I don't care what they say they use it for or what "safeguards" they have in place. The simple fact that it has been, and is being, collected en mass is enough to raise my hackles. However, unlike Average Joe, I'm not afraid to walk down the street. I don't fear that terrorists are going to blow up my town. I've weighed the odds and decided that my privacy and my rights are more important that the illusion of safety.

   What Average Joe seems not to have realized is that he's far more likely to to die from heart disease, cancer, a car accident, or just tripping on something than he is to be injured or killed by terrorists.