Pondering with tea: lack of privacy and individualised surveillance

Introducing today's new blog post type: 'Pondering with tea', where I sit down with a mug of tea, and indulge myself, and use this 'platform' (lel) to develop my ideas or philosophies. If you are after a tea review, TURN BACK now.


Topic
Today I am thinking about the issue of privacy.


L'begin

The Edward Snowden conversation is one of the most important issues a sentient, technologically advanced society HAS to have; will the people stand by those who speak the truth against the system which threatens every individual, or do they watch them burn like an effigy, signifying their lack of protest, and therefore blind acceptance over the issue.

Seriously, what a boss. The first thing he follows on Twitter was the NSA. His first tweet was inspired, to say the least. Legend. [2]

Come on guys, don't play coy; we all know how the ramping up of individual surveillance ends. We all know it devolves into inevitable abuse, persecutions, and a severe power imbalance that will be taken advantage of.

People can pretend all they want that it's not an issue or that they don't care. They 'don't care' because they don't want to think about the implications of the precedents being set now, that will give way to even further interrogation by government/ruling class/power elite of your personal, private life. Justifying individual surveillance as being used on criminals and not law abiders, is a bullshit justification.

People abuse everything, just look at our banking, economic and political systems. None of it really works because the people at the top want to stay there; they want to die, King of the Hill. Society rewards this kind of behaviour, so why would you think the constant dwindling of your privacy would be any different? It's so overtly abusable, the ruling class/power elite are passed the point of being able to at least try and pretend that it's not, and it's 'for our protection'. It's pure and simple; wrong, and so open to abuse that to think differently is incorrect. The invasion of our privacy is one of the biggest issues we will ever face. We need to say 'No' now, so the following generations get their choice to say 'No'. We can't choose this for them, we need to give them the opportunity to choose their own future, instead of being born into a world where everything is already chosen for them. That is the worst thing we can do for the next generation and for humanity. 

What concerns me is that I never really hear people talk about this, yet everyone knows of 1984. We've been warned on exactly this situation, and multiple times at that! It's not a fucking joke and it's a big fucking deal. Not enough people discuss the annexation of our privacy. This should be talked about all the time. We need to say 'No' now, before they tell us we can't say 'No' anymore. 

In case you either agree with the current downwards trend of personal privacy, or can't fathom why it would ever be an issue, let me put it simply: One day, they will use it to control you. This is an absolute fact. If it doesn't happen to you, it will happen to your children, or your friends' children, or all their children. But make no mistake, it will happen. There will be people telling you what to do, and having proof if you don't. But they won't stop there, because control breeds more control, and even ideas are dangerous at this point. Just as the mass of a body increases, as does it's gravitational force, and ability to exert it's force on more and more things as it grows larger; it's a greedy system, which can be summed up as: 'Gravitational force is proportionate to mass'. Therefore it follows that even thinking about the 'wrong thing' will at one stage, be considered wrong. If we are EVER on the path to thoughtcrime, we should turn and never look back. 

Besides affecting more things as mass increases, gravity also distorts things
for an observer. It's a good metaphor. [1]

Our stance, or passive-leaning-against-the-wall-in-disinterest in this issue, will be the defining moment of our generation. We've had no world war, because instead of government seeing nations, they now see individuals; their resolution has improved, and they don't have to rely on old-school methods. Now they cast a wider and more effective net over the population through indiscriminatory individualised surveillance; where everything you do leaves a footprint: every website, every search term, every bank transaction, every friend, every family photo, every compromising photo, every conversation, every love letter, every thought in your diary, everywhere you go, every hour of the day. 

Welcome to the future, where the bigger your digital footprint, the happier they are. We have the right to our digital footprint privacy, not from third parties, but the ruling class/power elite.

Says it all. [3] 

A bit of an offshoot, but something I don't think about much, is when other countries install crazy laws, it's an idea that poisons humanity for generations. Even though it doesn't affect me, it is a bad and dangerous seed that could grow into a real serious redwood of a problem. We need to make decisions as a species if we want to survive. That involves making sacrifices and compromising. At some point, the world is going to have to start compromising; it's our only way forward.

You never waste time while thinking.

So that's where I'm at.


Sources
[1] https://natuurbelevingessen.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/buiging20licht_thumb.gif?w=424&h=423
[2] http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/29/18/2CE7D26900000578-3253732-Edward_Snowden_joined_Twitter_on_Tuesday_morning_His_first_tweet-a-13_1443546973147.jpg
[3] http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0120/0692/products/thoughtpoliceretro_980heather-dark-grey_grande.jpg?v=1431660253