Click For A World Without Secrets
First of all, if you have not seen this little video clip, I highly recommend that you watch it. It is funny in the extreme and very well done. It made the rounds about 9 months ago and most of my friends saw it through e-mail.
However, that isn't why I am posting it here.
After I got done chuckling at this little skit and the paranoia that it was supposed to instill in all of us, I started thinking about 'why' the content was so funny.
The skit references a world in which 'big brother' has gone wild and can control our lives. There are no secrets, everything you do, buy, say and think is documented and can be used against you. Sort of George Orwell's 1984 come to life in the present day. The ACLU and the American left wing want you to be very afraid of this and want you to fear the idea of being 'exposed' for all the world to see.
Over the years, I have trained myself to ask the question "why" a lot. If someone tells me I should like something, or that I should be afraid of something, I ask "why". Seems to me, that too many of us take what others say (be it a friend, the media or the President) and take it as truthful.
If Exxon / Mobil says 'toxic sludge is good for you', I sort of ask "why". Could Exxon / Mobil be lying to me? What is THEIR motivation for telling me this.
So with this sort of warped mindset, I watched the ACLU's version of Pizza Palace and started asking some questions. Why is this so bad? If this type of world came to pass, what would it entail?
A world where neighbors had no secrets about one another.
1. A world where you knew if your new neighbor was a PhD scientist or a pedophile.
2. A world where you knew if they were taking out a 3rd mortgage on there house to deal with a gambling problem.
3. You knew that their last 3 houses all burned down within 2 years.
A world were no spouse had to worry about the other one cheating.
1. You knew that your spouse had filed suit against 3 previous employers, all for sexual harassment.
2. Your husband had really been at a strip club when he had told you that he was visiting a sick friend in the hospital.
3. That your fiancé was under the care of a psychiatrist for bi-polar disorder and extreme depression.
A world where employees and employers had nothing to hide and knew who was incompetent.
1. You would know before you took a job that the company has the highest turnover ratio during the last 8 months of their 15 year history.
2. You would know that your new female supervisor's maiden name was the same as the company founders and she had just gotten out of 2 years of drug rehab.
A world where your status and monetary prowess was known to all, and not masked by clothes, jewels, cars and homes.
1. You would know that the person driving the Hummer in front of you was in debt up to his / her ass and about to go bankrupt.
2. You would know that the bum on the street sleeping on a bus bench was really worth 8 million dollars and that he "chooses" to live the way he does.
3. You would know that the strange folks living across the street from you were actually using the home as a drop house for immigrant smugglers or a meth-lab.
A world where everyone knew what each others physical frailties where and they were all accepted.
1. A world where you knew what your friends, office mates, lovers and neighbors all had to deal with in their personal lives.
2. What diseases they had, what medication they were on.
3. What trauma they had faced in life.
4. How many kidneys' they had.
5. Do they know what chemotherapy is really like?
In short, this all sounds like the world of the 'good old days', when we all lived in small towns and knew our neighbors and everyone helped each other out and was compassionate to their plights.
Instead, the ACLU fosters the fear of having all your 'secrets' found out. We don't want people to know that we have AIDS or are about to go bankrupt, that we cheat on our spouses or don't know the first thing about our jobs. Because that would make us appear 'lesser' in the eyes of others and hurt our chances to 'improve' our situation through deception.
Seems that we are more in fear of having our ego's bruised than of having the world a better place and understanding others.
That was the answer to the questions of "why" that I kept asking myself after seeing this little video.
All of a sudden, it did not seem that funny.
Hmmm, I wonder "why"....
All right you asked for it... But first I must say I like you Bruce and whatever your true political beliefs are? It won’t change my opinion of you, I don’t care about that. Second; I don’t think you actually wrote that bit of brain sucking propaganda. (The phrase “We’re all a little bit dumber for having read that” comes to mind) Personally, I don’t think you could write something that stupid.
ReplyDeleteSo I think you must have put that up there just to get some action on the site. That’s O.K. Fuel for the fire and all that.
But now it’s somebody else’s responsibility to temper it with a little reality. Because there are too many people out there that would read a thing like that and say Hey! right! “the good ol’ days were good! That why we call ‘em “good ol’ days”. So what if your neighbors know what kind of movies you rent? Or if they find out that even though you are 30years old your mom makes your car payment? ...Maybe people will straighten up. Maybe all those slackers and perverts will just stop it, straighten up and fly right! That’s what this country needs a little less secrets. It’s time to air out our dirty laundry folks. It would be good for us! Come on everybody! Share a little! Open up I say, It’ll feel good I’m sure.
You wrote...
Instead, the ACLU fosters the fear of having all your 'secrets' found out. We don't want people to know that we have AIDS or are about to go bankrupt, that we cheat on our spouses or don't know the first thing about our jobs. Because that would make us appear 'lesser' in the eyes of others and hurt our chances to 'improve' our situation through deception.
Seems that we are more in fear of having our ego's bruised than of having the world a better place and understanding others.
Really sounds a little like one of my heros: John Lennon. doesn’t it? Imagine there’s no bla bla bla... Come on everybody sing along...
Here’s the weak link in your chain of thoughtlessness (could that be right? thoughtlessness? wow, long word, thoughtlessness... hmmm) Sorry I digress just as I’m finally getting to my point. Which is simple...
It’s about a small group of people (our elected elite) spying and collecting information on a large group of people (you and me) whether the large group (that’s you and me again) wants them to or not. So they can sell that info to others. It’s about your right to be a private citizen if you choose to be. It’s not about you getting to know your friends and neighbors a bit better!
It’s a stupid notion to think information collected by the Bush crime family would be made available to you. What have they ever given away? Do you think there would be a bulletin board at the end of your street with everybody’s info posted? Or maybe a public website where you can go see things like what your exwife bought at the store yesterday? The people who want this information isn’t the government anyway it is the retailers. The big corporations that want to sell you stuff.
My right to privacy is not about my ego. If you think the government gives a shit about making your world a better place you are sadly mistaken.
“...the world a better place and understanding others” You could not really type that with a straight face could you? I know you just did that so I would respond right? Well I did. Anybody else have something to say? Come on share a little, it’ll feel good. I'm sure. What? You don't want to share? Hmmm, I wonder "why"....
No bother, we already know what you're thinking anyway. So get your ass to Walmart and buy more beer!
Remember if you give your rights away you cannot get them back without a fight. We had to fight to get them in the first place. And who did we fight to get those rights?
Holy Shit!
ReplyDeleteIn the world of point-counter point, I think I just got hit with a sledgehammer. With out a doubt, the most entertaining comment I think I have gotten to date. Good to see I finally hit a raw nerve in somebody.
I am not about to disagree with anything you state here Paul. I am neither a democrat or a republican, and sure as hell don't like Bush.
Don't think for a minute that I am advocating that we give the overpaid corporate puppets in Washington this type of power and authority. I sort of mused that if "Pizza Palace" had access to this type of information, we all would have access for a fee.
It isn't so much the micromanaging of data and the loss of privacy that I was railing against in this blog, as much as the the concept that we all live in secrecy within the modern society. Something that is propagated by the lawyer elite and the left wing media. If we want to live our lives anonymously, there is still enough open range land out there to set up a spread and not bother the rest of the world. However, if we choose to live together in packed urban areas for the common good (sewers, hospitals, mass transit, law enforcement), there has to be a certain give and take regarding personal rights and welfare of the community.
Personally, I would not mind if cops could scan my license plate and know where I live and how much I earn and how many times I have been arrested. Sure it is a loss of personal freedom, but there is also the fact that I don't want YUBI's (Young Urban Black Idiots) steeling my Porsche and driving it through South Phoenix. Society has it's price. Personally, I am planning my future in a place that isn't quite this urban, where I won't have to give up so many of those rights.
I am no fan of the ACLU. I think for the most part they take things way to far to the left and exist on principle and not practicality.
If the stupid idiot in the ACLU pizza spot wants his meat pizza, he should buy it with cash and make it himself when he gets home. Pretty hard to trace that.
By your statment "Good to see I finally hit a raw nerve in somebody." I can see you missed the most important point I was trying to make. That is if you put stuff up just to get a reaction. You should be careful because there are people out there that can’t or just don’t think for themselves.
ReplyDeleteSo if you post an asinine thing ‘like why do we need our right to privacy?’ and then support it with stupid statements like ‘it will make us all understand each other better and make the world better if we don’t have secrets. These assholes might believe you. And that is dangerous.
BTW if I had AIDS or spent some years in prison for killing someone with my car while drunk - you are god dammed right that falls under the category of None of your f**king business.
Leave it to you to get right to the core of the blog, Paul. It wasn't about civil rights, or personal rights, or the ACLU. It was about the average Joe (or Joan) not 'thinking' about the options they are given, and just believing what they are told. Be it by the media, or by the ACLU, or by Der Fuhrer, President Bush. There are some folks that think Bush is doing a great job and that there must be WMD somewhere in Iraq, and that the "Patriot Act" really IS Patriotic. These morons need to start turning off the tube and start asking the question why more often.
ReplyDelete