General Discussion

They kept an immense amount of data of every private citizen they could. They had so much data, in fact, that their "state security (Stasi) " apparatus drowned under the weight of information they had collect6ed. After socialism fell in the DDR, their citizens were allowed to look up whatever the state had collected on them. People that had never considered themselves active dissidents were amazed to find huge dossiers amassed on them. People in the DDR knew perfectly well about how their State was watching them, and nowhere near a majority of them dared to be open about their views until the regime was about to collapse. In the States, these days, although the technology is far more advanced, the numbers of the opposition are well over 50% of the population. No regime can follow up on a number of that magnitude. What they can do is make examples of a few, and thus hope to instill fear in the rest of us, but that is about it. We have to watch for that, and not let them get away with it.