"The private life is dead in the new Russia," said a Red Army officer in the film of Boris Pasternak's "Dr. Zhivago." There were many scarifying things in that great movie, but that was the scariest, the dry proclamation that the intimate experience of being alive would now be subordinate to the state. An odd thing is that when privacy is done away with, people don't become more authentic, they become less so. What replaces what used not to be said is something that must be said and is usually a lie.Peggy Noonan, WSJ
When we lose our privacy, we lose some of our humanity; we lose things that are particular to us, that make us separate and distinctive as souls, as, actually, children of God. We also lose trust, not only in each other but in our institutions, which we come to fear. People who now have no faith in the security of their medical and financial records, for instance, will have even less faith in their government. If progressives were sensitive to this, they'd have more power. They always think the answer is a new Internet Privacy Act. But everyone else thinks that's just a new system to hack.
At technology conferences now they say, "Get over it." Privacy is gone, get with the new world. But I'm not sure technologically focused people can be sensitive to the implications of their instructions.
Thanks, Andrea.
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This is a great thought. As we here at the The Modular Main maintain in our core philosophy, ethical/moral/social strategies regarding technology tend to be reactionary (Toffler), thus rendering us slaves to our own creation. I have heard the 'get over it' regarding the privacy issue of the internet. This type of thought is not only reactionary, it is foolish. It does not strategically address the human condition within the bounds of the state created. Some of us tend to regard technology/the internet as the new Republic,a utopia, but the one mistake utopian ideals always make is that they overlook the most fundamental, crucial truth of mankind's existence: the individual.
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ReplyDeleteYes, this article really does a great job of illustrating how widespread information sharing actually devalues the individual. The sanctity of identity is difficult to put one's finger on, especially since there are so many predetermined modes of self-expression at our fingertips. In deconstructing ourselves, we lose track of the core, the noumenal essence of ourselves. And we see so much more of other people around us, which is overwhelming and overstimulating, and at the same time irrelevant, and often indicative of others' flaws, revealing in clear terms the sinful nature of man.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, it is alienating, fracturing, and destructive. Ironic that I am posting this on a blog, and directly below the comment box is a form that says "Comment as: [Select profile...]"