From the very day my Dad dragged me out of school that fateful morning of September 11th, 2001 up until today most of the damage that has been done has largely remained out of sight. There have been no grand discussions about what is best for us as a society, no civic debates or even the time to process what has been done.

It has all happened most often with a whimper, and the people who do complain are often labeled as radicals. Left in their own corner trying so desperately to inform the people what is happening.

I am one of them.

I remember the day the Patriot Act was passed, and I recall asking my Dad what it meant. He said he didn’t know, but it was meant to protect us.

Fast-forward to the present. Our “War on Terror” has largely been a failure with Iraq sliding into another civil war, Afghanistan about to self-implode (again) and a world weary of America as a global policeman. All we have to show for it is over 1 million dead civilians, a nation on the verge of default and a growing sense of discontent over the failure of the system.

Domestically, though, the war was won. As the technology boom of the last decade has transformed American society at large the Patriot Act, and the justification of National Security, has established an unprecedented surveillance system that is the envy of any dictatorship. The NSA and its affiliates have such overbearing communication techniques that they can breach any aspect of your digital life.

All without a warrant.

Credit cards, texts, social media (even for those who lock their profiles down), bank accounts and transactions, phone-calls, email and various other services are fair game.

The NSA, and the forces behind it, lost the war abroad but have won it at home by locking down American society, pealing back the various rights laid forth in our constitution. You cannot expect privacy, and you can no longer expect to be innocent.

What has happened isn’t even understood by the people who run these branches. And aside from a few light “reforms” President Obama has proposed nothing has stopped the NSA. These secret courts, these politick testimonies before public courts and the general lack of knowledge by the mainstream American populace has allowed the NSA to run virtually unopposed within American society.

And what do we have to show for it?

Nothing.

The Boston Bombings still happened.

There are still children being shot in schools.

Abductions, robberies, rape and all the worst society has to offer is still occurring.

Part of being free is knowing that bad things will happen. That by being free you are making yourself vulnerable. We need to accept that and mandate that these federal agencies are under the watchful eyes of people who respect the rights of the citizens. What we have lost is that freedom of privacy that so many people once took for granted.

What we have isn’t a safety net, it’s an illusion. The longer we live in it the more damage we do to ourselves.