Comment by dictum

A lot of it is indeed the way things have always been, but that absolutely does not excuse allowing such actions to persist in the future. However, posts with a sense of naive shock that nations have only started doing unethical things in the past 20 years (or that a certain nation has changed) instead of realizing nations have always done unethical/questionable things is a hyperbole. Even the most civilized countries of every time period performed highly unethical actions and were derided by fellow countries of the time period. Unfortunately, most of the discussions are filled with noise related to this, instead of posts that are constructively looking for a solution to such problems.

I feel much of those sort of posts would be remedied if people were more interested in the history of the world going back more than just within their own lifetimes + 20 to 30 years. I'm still in my late 20s, but most people I know only have a passing interest in history (even less so when it's not about their country) and saw such courses in school as a burden, rather than useful. I was just lucky to have family that encouraged having an interest in history and how it shaped the world. To me, it's just as important as teaching one's children about Science, Programming and Mathematics.

News and information are also much more widespread now than they were 10 to 20 years ago, so many start to think this is a new phenomenon as it used to be more difficult to stay informed. History is just repeating itself with some additional ingredients mixed in and outrage is not useful when nothing comes of it.

The phrase "Why should I care about history?" never range more true when people express outrage over issues such as the NSA. The "good old days" are not as good as many people like to believe. That does not mean we should roll over and accept everything though.