Many years ago, when the Internet became a reality accessible to all, there were many hoorahs heard worldwide. The new system enabled access every kind of information to even the poorest people which, until then, was reserved to the wealthy or people who dwelled in urban areas.
It was touted as the 'great equalizer'. Now that system is turning against the people who use it. Governments are quickly learning how to use it for their own benefit. What the government is collecting and what they plan to do is almost limitless, and by virtue of that, abominable.
Why then, do people suffer such invasions of their private lives? Is there a switch in all of us that has been thrown on our very privacy genes, on our sense of self and self-preservation? Or is that the need to belong, to communicate to be alive and present, even if it is with strangers, are stronger than our sense of self-preservation?
Is the Internet then, our Soma? If it is, it is working in ways that were better than projected. Almost everyone, it seems, has dropped the pretense that their private life should remain just that. People seem to want to tell all of their secret consciously or unwillingly, and yet, when faced with the fact that their exposure is unsafe or at least without consent, they seem to shrug their shoulders and keep going.
The Brave New World we are facing is one in which every action, and every word we utter or write will become domain of the powerful government structures that have put the surveillance in place.
Before, there were closed circuit cameras. Now, there are cameras in your computers that can be remotely turned on. Soon, every building, and every room and every instrument will become 'bugged'. The rest of the electronics and ways of communications have already been fully exploited.
What is government doing? They are storing everything, like eager little squirrels and tell us that the information will not be accessed 'until' the day that some act, or connection, or vague implication will allow them to obtain a warrant to use it as they see fit.
It's all good, the governments reassure us. It's for a good cause, your liberty and your safety warrant your losing of your personal liberty and privacy. Just trust us.
Where then is the rebellion? The apprehension at being so used and scrutinized? The fear of the consequences of such illegal and all encompassing surveillance?
So far, a few whimpers and a couple of shouts have been heard. But that's it. And it's global.
It's the Soma then, it must be. The constant appeasement of one's brightest and darkest desires, the pastime, the soothing companion to our once empty and lonely days, the keeper of the secrets we are now freely sharing, and the complement to that obscure desire that is the wish to be known, even if it is by strangers, that internet. It has become our solace, and we, have become its slave. The Internet has become our master, a grand puppet held by long strings, which we wish to ignore.
What then, and when will that outrage be? From the looks of it, it might never come.
Op-Ed
Source : Spiegel / 6.25.13
No comments:
Post a Comment