Democracy has always been a rare and fragile institution in human history. . . . As social conflict tends to become more severe in this country . . . there will inevitably be a tendency on the part of the authoritarian element--always present in our history--to suppress individual freedoms, to utilize the refined techniques of police surveillance (not excluding torture of course) in order to preserve--not wilderness!--but the status quo, the privileged positions of those who so largely control the economic and governmental institutions of the United States.