Big Brother Abused Sibling - Research Paper Example

The Big Brother image could be illustrated by the various legislations that have been passed by the United States Congress in a bid to tighten the surveillance of terrorism activities in the country (Rowen 29; Kowalski 44 ). The USA Patriot Act and Domestic Spying is one of the legislations by Congress, which gave the law enforcers fresh powers to carry out a range of measures and activities, which are essentially inimical to public good. For instance, the act gave law enforcers the authority to spy on citizens, monitor their cash transactions, or even search their private premises without warrants.

Congress justified these new measures as having been necessitated by the need to forestall the possibility of terror acts. Other excessive acts sanctioned by the government to the law enforcers include eavesdropping, deporting, and detaining individuals or persons believed to be conducting activities related to terrorism activities. . There was little time to consider the long-term repercussions of the legislations on the basic rights of the citizenry. Studies have shown that public support on these legislations have dropped significantly in the course of time.

As such, it becomes important to consider the fact that some of the issues that concern the promotion of the rights of the American citizenry from the activities of terrorists must be considered within the general framework of the roles and obligations of the government towards the citizenry as compared to their rights and liberties. Theorists have attached the Hobbesian concept of government to the growing control of the United States government over the private lives of the citizenry (Hol and Vervaele 82).

Some of them contend that the United States Government response has overreached itself in the application of the powers. It would be appropriate to consider the US reactions in terms of the utilitarian perspectives, which support the provision of the greatest good to the greatest number. As such, it becomes important to consider the fact that some of the issues concerning the responses of the government might be understood as an attempt by both the Bush and Obama administrations to curtail the attempts of terrorists to inflict greater damage in the United States even if it involves some element of discomfort to the public.

A major challenge that engages the attention of the critics revolves around the exclusion of the courts from the general process of protecting the rights of the American people. In the estimation of many critics, the actions of the government directly undermine the rule of law because