A few days after it passed, I complained about the abuses to liberty in the Patriot Act to an older, and very-wise friend. He talked about a sociological pendulum as well, and predicted those over-reaches of power would be righted in time. Given how often and completely he has been right, before, I started watching and waiting. Except, I&#x27;ve been waiting for fifteen years now, and that pendulum seems to only be going further away from liberty, privacy, and (real) security.<p>I&#x27;m not sure, but I&#x27;m starting to think that we&#x27;ve reached a point where sociological constructs that would have flamed out, even just 20 years ago, can be sustained, because the people in power to sustain them now have an echo chamber where the message never quite falls below the point of being lost. It&#x27;s almost as if improvements in communication have now backfired in raising the noise above the signal.<p>I hope you turn out to be right. As a white, male, heterosexual programmer who&#x27;s reached his late 40&#x27;s, I don&#x27;t need any extra pressure working against me in my career prospects. I&#x27;m already starting to hate the H1-B visa program, but that&#x27;s a rant for another post.