It’s hard to be optimistic about the future when all the evidence points to the complete loss of freedom in the United States. You’ll still have freedom of speech unless you say the wrong thing, you’ll still have freedom of assembly unless you meet with the wrong people, and you still be able to worship whichever religion you like unless your beliefs forbid you from serving the government.
In the works are plans to set up a network of surveillance cameras all over the city of Washington, D.C. The money has already been allocated. This could be the blueprint for the entire country. In the likely future your image may be captured and recorded hundreds or thousands of times. In conjunction with facial recognition software large databases could be constructed where your movements could be stored and recorded for years. Law enforcement is also demanding new powers. Police now get search warrants for book store records to check what books certain people read. So, what you read could be used against you. After September 11, there has been a power grab by the authoritarian element of our society, but is there any hope of change? Interestingly, as the US slides towards the abyss of fascism there are signs that in some places outside America there is change for the better. In the former Soviet Union, a military secrecy law that has been used to prosecute whistle-blowers has been overturned by the Russian Supreme Court. Maybe there is still some hope that this trend can be reversed. Who knows if people will still be up for this War on Terrorism in a few years?