Why sympathize with them? They either decided in bad faith that working on an interesting problem was more important to them than acting ethically, or they are saying "I'm just doing my job" also in bad faith. These philosophical decisions are simply malicious relative to the rest of us.
There is also the possibility that they have been deluded by nationalism or propaganda in order to believe that a panopticon is acceptable in a democracy, but there isn't much we can do to help these people connect the dots between the panopticon they are helping to build and Orwellian thoughtcrime-- we simply don't have access to them that we could use to be persuasive, as you mentioned. I think this population of people is actually pretty large among the government contractors.
Finally, though you are correct that NSA employees would probably mention this, for the purposes of agencies operating in the public interest in a democracy, the concept of "insider knowledge" is not permissible. I say this not to suggest that we make all the operations of our clandestine groups transparent, but rather to suggest that the complete ignorance the American public has found itself to be in is a byproduct of intentional grooming along the lines of "national security secrets" which really are intentionally crafted backdoors to the process of informed democracy. The citizens not involved in agency day-to-day have a firm need to know the methods and rationales used, and they need to have direct and powerful oversight.
Why sympathize with them? Because you would undoubtedly appreciate me second-guessing decisions you made in complex, nuanced situations to which I was not a party, just as much as they likely appreciate the way you've reduced their dilemma to a ridiculously over-simplified, cut-and-dry model of reality that is no more fair than it is accurate. That's why. Don't excoriate these people based on your assumptions.
Do we currently have the ideal balance between the need to protect our citizens and national interests, and the need to protect the rights of our citizens that our Constitution guarantees? Hell no, we obviously don't have it. Is that something most NSA employees have control over? No. You may be the one who is deluded if you think someone can just raise their hand at the NSA and say, what?, "I think we should re-think how we're doing business, because we might be infringing on the rights of everyday Americans." It's a bureaucracy. To address these issues, we need to be suggesting solutions instead of perpetually yelling at each other like opposing fans at a football game.
I don't want to live in a panopticon anymore than you do. My point is that we don't live in a perfect world, and that none of us are perfect (I hold myself up as a prime example). We need to recognize the difficult situation we've put the people who serve our country through the intelligence community; we've asked them to protect us from our enemies, but we expect them to accomplish their mission without encroaching on our privacy or violating our rights. And WE SHOULD expect them to do both; that's the nature of the job. I'm just pointing out that we should recognize and acknowledge the position this puts them in and stop demonizing them. It's counter-productive at best.
I do not accept that all of the communications of every American must be surveilled and stored in order to accomplish the mission. We need to find the right balance between security and citizens' rights. But that's not something that can be accomplished by software engineers at the NSA, nor even by the head of the NSA. We need to elect political leaders who we trust to work towards finding that balance. And we need to recognize that not only will it be an uphill battle, but a long one: we will always struggle to find the right balance between privacy and security. It's been going on since the Declaration of Independence, and I'd bet my money it'll still be going on at the quinticentennial.
>I don't want to live in a panopticon anymore than you do.
Probably best to stop showing up to work at the panopticon then, you know, if you actually believe what you write. Lots of scientists fled Nazi Germany, the Manhattan project may not have happened without such people leaving.
Now lawyers argue about 'law' and due process and separation of powers yet the US government lies, spies, tortures, and murders without conscience.
There is also the possibility that they have been deluded by nationalism or propaganda in order to believe that a panopticon is acceptable in a democracy, but there isn't much we can do to help these people connect the dots between the panopticon they are helping to build and Orwellian thoughtcrime-- we simply don't have access to them that we could use to be persuasive, as you mentioned. I think this population of people is actually pretty large among the government contractors.
Finally, though you are correct that NSA employees would probably mention this, for the purposes of agencies operating in the public interest in a democracy, the concept of "insider knowledge" is not permissible. I say this not to suggest that we make all the operations of our clandestine groups transparent, but rather to suggest that the complete ignorance the American public has found itself to be in is a byproduct of intentional grooming along the lines of "national security secrets" which really are intentionally crafted backdoors to the process of informed democracy. The citizens not involved in agency day-to-day have a firm need to know the methods and rationales used, and they need to have direct and powerful oversight.
We don't have any of these things, currently.