A few hours ago I checked out this post on the Capitalism Magazine website:
http://www.capitalismmagazine.com/politics/law/privacy/4524-Spying-and-Privacy-Rights-Spying-Absolutely-Always-Wrong.html
I saw that they had a PRIVACY section under politics, and thought that since privacy is such a keen concern of mine currently, that it was worth checking out. Unfortunately, the latest posts dated back to 2006, but one caught my eye and I thought it worth discussing.
In his posts, Mr. Hurd argues for the invasion of privacy to catch terrorists. It seems a decent argument at first, and I do agree with some of his points. But near the end of the article his dangerous thinking pours through.
"I want my government to spy and do whatever else it takes to catch terrorists."
And in the final paragraph he states, "I have no problem with the standard of spying President Bush has drawn."
In my opinion, these two lines reveal the two major thoughts that are wrong with his picture.
1. A by-whatever-means-necessary approach is thoughtless and hardly ever considers the ramifications that it might impose on the larger public.
2. It shows that a STANDARD for the INVASION OF PRIVACY has been set, and believes that to be perfectly fine. If a government invades privacy, it should be deemed a necessary action that has to be made in an instant. There shouldn't be a standard for the regular government invasion of privacy.
What do you think? I'm a just a crazy conspiracy nut, or is it possible that many US citizens don't put enough value on their privacy?
HOw I feel about the situation is that not enough people worry about the government and their personal privacy. Privacy is a conversation that no one speaks upon and I feel that the government should not be able to just violate someone's privacy so easily. I recently found out in this class that the government can look at one's cookies to find out what they have been looking at. Plus I watch a lot of law and order and etc. I feel that your are correct about there being a standard because everyone has a different opinion about what is appropriate and what is not so going by one standard may not be privacy anymore.
ReplyDelete-Denisha
I concur, I think that we do not value our privacy enough, but to me, I have really nothing too much to hid. So, yes, I think it will be a gross misuse of funding if the government found the need to "mentor" Americans more. My only problem with this would be, if people decide that the want a certain group of people to be followed because of race or what ever else that they think good be a justifiable reason to track one specific race or ethnicity. If we're going to do it to one it needs to be done universially.
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