Introduction
In the course of its history, the United States has gone though many tragic moments, which strongly influenced the development of the country. It is extremely difficult to single out the worst event because social phenomena are always intertwined and should be viewed as a single entity. However, one can distinguish some defining turning points that adversely affected the county and its people. I would like to focus on the adoption of the so-called PATRIOT Act, which will always a stigma in American history, at least in my opinion.
Main body
This act of legislation was passed on October 26 shortly after September 11 attacks. Theoretically it is supposed to increase the countrys readiness and ability to struggle against terrorism though in fact authorizes the government to violate the privacy of the US citizens. Naturally, the PATRIOT Act has often been subjected to criticism but it seems to me that American society has yet to realize far-reaching consequences of this decision.
Some people may object to me and say that it is the necessary precaution against external threat. They overlook the fact that American nation was scared into accepting this law which means that we lost the battle to terrorism at least at that particular moment. The US government doest not see the cruel irony of the situation. The word “terrorism” literally means intimidation or bullying and American nation was bullied into believing that some human rights could be taken away from a person. Judging from that it is possible to say that September 11 attacks clearly achieved their goal. There is a very curious paradox: the United States has always fought against terrorism but the policy, pursued by the government indicates that the country has yielded to it.
In addition to that, even the name of this law is cynical; the government tried to prove that adoption of this bill had been an act of patriotism. Apparently, this notion can be interpreted from different perspectives but I have never heard that it justifies interception of oral or electronic communication. Furthermore, the concept of patriotism doe not imply that government has right to arrest the countys citizens virtually without any warrant. The question arises who is the person (a group of people) that are authorized to oversee others. What exactly makes them eligible for the role of supervisors? It appears that this dilemma can never be resolved.
The PATRIOT Act practically legitimated witch-hunt and ethnic discrimination. Every immigrant (regardless legal state) who comes from Islamic countries becomes a person suspected of terrorism activity. It is not quite clear to what are the reasons for suspecting and accusing a person of terrorism. The whole tragedy is that everyone who even slightly differs from the traditional Western-European type can fall into this category and become a primary suspect. Such policy radically changes the international image of the country: whereas earlier the US was viewed as an avid supporter of tolerance, now it almost turns into a totalitarian society.
Conclusion
It has often been declared that democratic values are the main priority of the American government. As we can see, the adoption of the PATRIOT Act dissipates this age-old myth. I do not want to say that it transformed the United States into a supervision society, which was so eloquently depicted in George Orwells novel “1984” but its implementation showed people can be easily deprived of their civil rights even in such county as the United States.