OPINION: John W. Whitehead - Coronavirus vs. the Mass Surveillance State: Which Poses the Greater Threat?

The war on terror, the war on drugs, the war on illegal immigration, asset forfeiture schemes, road safety schemes, school safety schemes, eminent domain: all of these programs started out as legitimate responses to pressing concerns and have since become weapons of compliance and control in the police state’s hands.

It doesn’t even matter what the nature of the crisis might be—civil unrest, the national emergencies, “unforeseen economic collapse, loss of functioning political and legal order, purposeful domestic resistance or insurgency, pervasive public health emergencies, and catastrophic natural and human disasters”—as long as it allows the government to justify all manner of government tyranny in the so-called name of national security.

Now we find ourselves on the brink of a possible coronavirus contagion.

Read more at The Rutherford Institute. 

John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute,a Charlotteville, Va.-based civil liberties defense organization. He is the author of four books, including Battlefield America: The War on the American People, and host of the Freedom Under Fire podcast.