Orwellian Now? U.S. considered "endemic surveillance society"

In a recent post on Digg.com, I found this interesting link about surveillance in societies across the world. It contains a detailed map of the level of surveillance and free speech in each nation. The United States now joins Russia, China and the UK as one of the most heavily watched societies in the world. Although we do wish to be safe, I wonder - is this the direction we wish to be heading? As the famous sociologist, Robert Merton coined the term: Have our actions in the recent years led us to unforeseen consequences?

Here is the diagram: