&gt; Anything could happen. But I&#x27;m not going to concern myself with it until I see some evidence.<p>So, you are drinking battery acid until you see evidence that it&#x27;s not good for you?<p>Or do you maybe take the evidence of other people&#x27;s experience into account?<p>If so, how about you take into account the evidence of hundreds of societies that have dealt with massive surveillance (where &quot;massive&quot; still was &quot;almost none&quot; in comparison to today&#x27;s and tomorrow&#x27;s technical possibilities) and with oppression (those two empirically tend to go hand in hand).<p>If those are your sincere beliefs, I really would recommend you pick up a few books about recent German history. How Hitler came to power, how the state functioned once he was in power, how people tried to get rid of him but failed, and what it took to finally remove him. And then continue with the history of the GDR, how surveillance by the Stasi influenced everyday life, how people tried to reform the political system but failed, and what it took to finally reunite Germany.<p>The history of other countries might teach you similar things, but Germany is a good example because it is culturally a rather &quot;western country&quot;, so it&#x27;s easier to recognize similarities.