“According to Gestapo records…they had little need to engage in direct spying on the citizens since the citizens themselves were more than willing to do their spying for them.”

A true statement whose validity can be substantiated in many countries from the distant past until the present time.

How sad the U.S. is falling into this same pattern of spying on your family and neighbors.

Divide and conquer. Our hypocritical 'morality' is the usual impetus for spying on the neighbors. Who would have thought that being nosy and self-righteous had such implications for the entire nation -- and possibly the world. Let the People be!

This is truth. Yet begs the question as to why citizens engage in this behavior? Is it fear, a desire for approval, a wish to belong, belief in the correctness of their behavior? These same types of individuals are the same as those who do not see a need for personal privacy. Yet with neighbor spying upon neighbor is it a matter of who reports whom first; the Third Reich established the practice of rewarding a citizen approximately ten percent of the recovered proceeds for turning a citizen in for not paying or evading various taxes. Our country has continued this tradition for years.

So many looking for "good boy" and a pat on the head.

I had a neighbor who prided herself in turning various people in to the county. Come to find out she was worse than what her neighbors were doing ! Her relatives were police officers, and in fact she was old and didn't have anything better to do.

Why do so many people spy on their neighbors and turn them in for little infractions? Because many people hate their neighbors' guts. Their dogs bark too loudly, too early in the morning. They yell and scream. They park their cars so they take up the whole street. They have junk in the yard. They wear ugly Hawaiian shirts. Any of a thousand reasons will piss your neighbors off, and many will stab you in the back for it. It's passive/aggressive behavior because that's what they can get away with, when what they really want to do is punch you in the nose.

Yep. Always somebody willing. Arizona I am sure has plenty of people that are willing to call up Obama to tell on somebody looking for illegal so that Obama can sue the state again.

The very fact that we war upon each other is the reason for a republican form of government. People cannot be trusted -- no matter what position of authority. That is why the government is distributed across thousands of counties and to keep state and federal jurisdictions in their proper spheres. Remember that humans are wild animals - predators at the top of the food chain. For some, the purpose of their lives is to civilize themselves, for others, it is to dominate. The form of government is thus an extension of the motivations of the people at large.