The revelations about surveillance

So this Snowden guy (who is in Russia) has revealed that we are being watched very closely. So it has become a big news event but didn’t we know this long before or we were just acting like nothing was happening. I guess we were ignoring it because we have been too eager to share the private matters of our lives for too long but now if it is revealed why we so much surprised and at pain that our own government is spy on us using every technology available to us to make sure that we are supposedly safe. But you know this was bound to happen, how else I may ask should the government keep track of subversive elements hell bent on destroying the United States. If the terrorists are using every mean at their disposal to kill as many Americans, why should the U.S. be handicapped in its search to seek and destroy these elements and we should be using every available means at our disposal to protect ourselves. But now you will say that it is un-American and the government should take authorization from the courts to do the surveillance and it should only go after people whom they deemed is potential suspect. But how do you know who is a suspect when nowadays you don’t even know your neighbor completely. How will the government be able to convince the court that a person is suspect when they don’t even know themselves? The court will never give authorization to phone tap and do other surveillance things based on some hunch, it does not work that way.