Maybe I Do Have Something to Hide

"The single most common, and most annoying, argument offered in defense of the democratic totalitarian surveillance state must be, "If you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to hide." This rhetorical argument has been around for generations, is used the world over, and is offered with equal boldness by progressives and conservatives alike. 

There is only one small problem with this ubiquitous argument for coerced transparency: it's a load of baloney. More specifically, it is utterly unsound, both logically and morally.

The tyrant's best friend -- the most trustworthy friend in his fear-based existence -- is a passive, submissive population: a population that has ceased to hold its private essence in reserve, that can no longer see why in the world men should care so much about whether their correspondence is being monitored or registered by the government, that has forgotten how the ability to conduct their affairs without the state's omniscient awareness might become more than a dispensable luxury."     [American Thinker]