Not only is that funny, it displays the basic problem with modern democracy. Too many people don't care about government surveillance until it affects them personally. There is very much an I'm all right Jack and I don't care about anyone else aspect to this.
The worst part is that this is a social, mass dysfunction that pervades far more than the surveillance/privacy threat. It is at work in how we turn away from even more potentially catastrophic problems such as overpopulation, over-consumption, overshoot, species extinction and the loss of biodiversity, the failure of democracy, climate change and more. As a community, a society, a global civilization, we will not participate in the essential conversation needed to explore and address these clearly existential threats.
I'll say it again. We're all Easter Islanders at this point and, even if at some point we change our mind and do want to act, we'll be already overtaken by events.
Not only is that funny, it displays the basic problem with modern democracy. Too many people don't care about government surveillance until it affects them personally. There is very much an I'm all right Jack and I don't care about anyone else aspect to this.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Toby.
ReplyDeleteSadly this is "I told you so" about mass spying and yet people don't care.
Once the apparatus has been put into place we'll never get rid of it.
The worst part is that this is a social, mass dysfunction that pervades far more than the surveillance/privacy threat. It is at work in how we turn away from even more potentially catastrophic problems such as overpopulation, over-consumption, overshoot, species extinction and the loss of biodiversity, the failure of democracy, climate change and more. As a community, a society, a global civilization, we will not participate in the essential conversation needed to explore and address these clearly existential threats.
ReplyDeleteI'll say it again. We're all Easter Islanders at this point and, even if at some point we change our mind and do want to act, we'll be already overtaken by events.