With due respect, I believe this is exactly the wrong interpretation of our present circumstances in the context of history. In the events you cite (and for most of this country's history prior to now), people actually had the power to organize and effect change, which at the time, could only ever be met with brute force by the powers-that-be.
The government didn't have the capability of near-omniscience, down to the level of an individual. They couldn't video-surveil entire cities in real time. They couldn't execute military action at massive scale. They didn't operate in a climate of such overwhelming political apathy that allowing military forces to operate domestically, seize people off the street, and throw them in a hole, forever, generates little more than an online petition and a few calls to Congress.
In short, we are orders of magnitude less free than we have ever been, simply by virtue of the incomprehensible power of the federal government. Just because they have not deigned to exercise it on a large scale (up till now), doesn't mean they can't, or won't. It just means they haven't needed to (yet). As is the case on many topics, I believe Frank Zappa summed it up best:
“The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.”
The government didn't have the capability of near-omniscience, down to the level of an individual. They couldn't video-surveil entire cities in real time. They couldn't execute military action at massive scale. They didn't operate in a climate of such overwhelming political apathy that allowing military forces to operate domestically, seize people off the street, and throw them in a hole, forever, generates little more than an online petition and a few calls to Congress.
In short, we are orders of magnitude less free than we have ever been, simply by virtue of the incomprehensible power of the federal government. Just because they have not deigned to exercise it on a large scale (up till now), doesn't mean they can't, or won't. It just means they haven't needed to (yet). As is the case on many topics, I believe Frank Zappa summed it up best:
“The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.”