Okay, I think I’m starting to put together some rules for how to conduct myself in the new world we inhabit. I’m naturally an introverted and private person, so these will be a little hard for me to get used to, but I think it’s best if I get started on adapting to them now. Here are a few basic ones:
*Don’t do anything in your home that you wouldn’t want a drone to photograph. Yeah, I used to think of it as the “privacy” of my own home, but that turns out to be a silly delusion. Be on your best behavior, even in your bedroom. I’m guessing sex is still acceptable as long as it takes place under the covers.
*Don’t communicate anything on the Internet–this includes “private” e-mails–unless you would be prepared to share it with the Department of Homeland Security. Or the Chinese military.
*Don’t take a photograph unless you are okay with it being used in online advertising later on down the road. (Or just be completely asocial like me and don’t share your pictures with your friends).
*Don’t wear embarrassing underwear–you never know when it might get displayed on a body scanner.
I’m guessing there’s more that I’m missing here. As far as I know, my conversations aren’t being bugged and my thoughts can’t be read yet. I remember hearing that the Age of Aquarius was going to bring all of humanity much closer together. Is it wrong of me to feel that we are getting a little too close? I like to be able to keep some things to myself.
02/21/2013 at 11:25 am
You know, hmn, all this increasing stripping down of our privacy on a mind-bogglngly gigantico scale makes me think that it’s possible, not likely mind you, that some kind of Star Trek-influenced planetary world order, one person, one vote for a Zaphod Beeblebrox-style world leader might be coming to fruition. The Chinese military has infiltrated the Pentagon, our industry, our power grids, and conversely we’ve most likely infiltrated theirs. What’s about to happen is that we’re all going to be supremely fucked in a short matter of time. Which gets me to thinking that a nice sitdown among our elected and non-elected planetary leaders might begin to formulate a program whereby this kind of soul-crushing nation-to-nation attack might not happen, but instead an agreement whereby we’re all basically turned into sheep to feed the smaller ruling classes, a kind of planetary apartheid, wait, hold on, that’s already happening. I had some idea where I was going with this, but it doesn’t matter. Today I had coffee and a bagel. I’m cleaning the attic looking over the entire history of a lifetime. Tonight I’ll get high as a kite and watch an indifferent moon settle happily in the cold night sky. I might also listen to a bit of Dave Brubeck and enjoy a hot chocolate. It’s the small things that make the larger things less important. Especially when you can’t do a damn thing about them.
02/21/2013 at 12:50 pm
It does scare me a bit to think where we’re going–especially since, again, I’m a private person with an appreciation for my private space. It does appear that the future might be one without any private space.
It sounds like you are taking the right path with your hot chocolate, Devil. I wish I could do the same. Problem is, the small things of everyday life tend to bore me. Hence my endless attraction to the larger things, even if it’s futile.
02/21/2013 at 2:19 pm
I think it just comes down to worrying about what we can control and what we can’t. It’s one thing to observe but another to get worked up about it. It’s hard not to, granted, I struggle with the point of even having an opinion, nevermind the thing that spurs it, but I’d rather live my life and enjoy the nice cuppa joe in front of me instead of not being able to because some yahoo 3000 miles away might do X or Y. Or god forbid Z. The dreaded Z!
Eh. Check out thedevil, you’ll see a post that in its own way addresses this same thing.
02/21/2013 at 4:43 pm
Oh, no doubt, there’s a difference between being excited and active about things and worrying about them. Hopefully I can keep from crossing that line (too often).
03/10/2013 at 7:52 pm
Good rules!
03/11/2013 at 5:55 pm
Unfortunately, they could come in handy….