Where do you stand on:
Privacy?;
Invasion of your personal space?;
The eye in the peephole watching you?
No doubt you will all roll your eyes and say DUH…where the hell do you think?
So with the latest privacy scandal rocking the UK, it’s no doubt pretty clear – who in their right mind would ever sanction such a cruel and horrible act as the hacking of cell phones for their treasure trove of private messages? Yet it was done…and ugly.
Yet – many of the same folks thought that WikiLeaks was OK – maybe even a public service – but even they would be incensed if anyone got a hold of their credit card information or home address or whatever…
By the way – this all in a world where we routinely post the most intimate info on Facebook and share what was once confidential without any thought.
Clearly we have begun to lose our own sense of what is public and what is private; what I am entitled to see and what I am clearly forbidden to share; what is mine and what is yours…
Frankly, as despicable as I think the News Of The World is – I can sort of/kind of understand the perpetrators in that we are losing our boundaries and it’s getting harder and harder to ascertain what is public and what is private beyond that credit card info (yours and mine, of course) I mentioned before.
A few thoughts – one is do nothing that requires privacy – and we might be heading in that direction:
“Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.” Will Rogers
Now – while this is a fine thought and maybe a lifestyle to aspire to – maybe – he doesn’t say live in such a way that you wouldn’t be ashamed if the town gossip broke into your home….
The real issue to me is, are we moving forward or backward?
Advancing civilization or decaying?And, to that end, I share with you two quotes – diametrically opposed – and ask you to weigh in….Listen:
“Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.” Ayn Rand
“It seems to me, Golan, that the advance of civilization is nothing but an exercise in the limiting of privacy.” Janov Pelorat in Asimov’s Foundation’s Edge
Personally speaking, I think more and more – and see some of my posts from the previous few weeks – Will Rogers has a clear point but that is because Asimov hit it on the head – as I wrote once before – it’s not Big Brother that worries me – it’s a world full of little brothers – all who feel entitled to you….
What do you think?
