As someone once told me, there's two errors you can make. On one hand you can be too paranoid. That's a bad thing. On the other hand, you can be not paranoid enough. You can be a sheep led to slaughter because you failed to heed the warning signs that things aren't quite right. There were such people at the beginning of all the great clamities of the world who said, "Don't worry, everything will work out fine." That's what Chamberlain was reported to have said after his returning from talks with Hitler.
"Only the paranoid will survive." Andy Grove
"In Germany they first came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me - and by that time no one was left to speak up."
-- Pastor Martin Niemoeller
In short, there are plenty of good reasons to be paranoid:
"All it takes for the triumph of evil is that enough good men stand around and do nothing." Edmund Burke
Source:
Garfinkel, Simson, Database Nation, O'Reilly and Associates, 2000
Last updated 6.05.04