Brutally Honest Rant - 10/25/06

Brutally Honest Audio Rant: Countering The Privacy Critics
Audio Transcripts
10/25/06

[Start Program]

(Computer – Introduction)
(Music intro – "American Idiot Remix" – by Green Day and David Matthews 2)

Good evening, and welcome to this week’s Brutally Honest Rant. I’m David Matthews 2, writer of the weekly online column Brutally Honest.

Let’s talk about… PRIVACY!

The old saying goes that a man’s home is his castle. Now that saying wasn’t just created out of the blue. It was done to illustrate the line of privacy that is supposed to exist between individuals in a truly free society and the rest of the world. Castles are supposed to be impenetrable. You’re not supposed to be in there unless invited in.

Unfortunately, very much like the real thing, castle walls that go unattended are subject to the ravages of entropy. Hinges rust, cracks in the walls form, holes are dug from rats, worms, and insects, door-jams rot and swell open, and if you don’t really care about them, the castle walls eventually won’t hold back the outside world. Pretty soon you’re left vulnerable, and you really have nobody to blame for it but yourself, because you never considered what could happen.

We are easily pressured to give up a little bit of privacy here and there, and it comes from all sorts of different places.

You buy a neat electronic device called a TiVO and all of your TV preferences are stored in some computer. You don’t realize it because it’s considered a "convenience". Cable and satellite pay-per-view purchases are tracked, obviously for billing purposes, but who knows for what other reasons? Credit card companies give you this so-called "privacy statement" which basically tells you in long lawyer-speak that you pretty much HAVE no privacy as far as they’re concerned. Your purchases can be tracked, traced, bartered and sold, and you get stuck with telemarketing calls and a seven-inch-thick billing statement full of offers of useless crap. You go to the grocery store and you’re pressured to join their "benefits club" where they give you discounts in exchange for having your shopping purchases also recorded and tracked.

So then, of course, we hear about the stuff going on with companies like Hewlett Packard where they hired private investigators to collect information through a tactic called "pretexting"… things like calling up the phone company, pretending to be you, and then requesting a copy of your phone records. It’s basically using the same tactics that identity thieves would use. And it’s LEGAL!

Little by little, the very things about you are chipped away and stolen. Half of the time you give it away and the other half of the time it’s taken without your permission.

Now longtime listeners know that I’ve criticized our so-called "free society" for not appreciating the very rights we take for granted, but let’s face it… while we may not fully understand or appreciate the freedom of speech, we at least RECOGNIZE it! We can’t say the same thing about privacy.

Let’s get brutally honest here… when it comes to the right to privacy, not only do we NOT appreciate it… but there are way too damn many people out there who firmly believe that it simply DOES NOT EXIST… AT ALL!

Of course we have the usual collection of power-mongers in government who believe that they should have the right and the authority to go into your home, your castle, at any time to tell you how to live your life. These are dictatorial dickheads who were that way before 9/11 and are now guilty of USING the threat of terrorism to further justify their tyrannical ways. Trust me, if 9/11 never happened then these same people would pull out any number of excuses to justify their busybody actions. Everything from the failed "War on Drugs" to zoning regulations to "protecting CHILDREEEEEEN".

Unfortunately they’re not alone in their assertions that we have no inherent right to privacy.

We have a wide variety of people who, by the very nature of their vocations, give up their privacy in exchange for fame. Politicians are right up there on the top of the list, but right behind them are members of the entertainment industry. You know, the folks that we like to call "celebrities". Thanks in no small part to the paparazzi – or, as I like to call them, the "stalker nazis" – we get to see EVERYTHING they do! Every mundane task, even going to the gym or to get an ice cream, is photographed minute by minute, moment by moment, and – especially for hot young females – chest-heaving breath by chest-heaving breath. If these folks spend most or all of their lives in a microscope, then they’re certainly not going to be supporters of privacy for anyone else.

And the media loves to dazzle us with the day-by-day activities of our celebrities, and they excuse these things by saying that "the public has a right to know". They waive the carrot of celebrity dirt and local schanagans to sell us on the idea that things would be a whole lot easier for us all if we all lived in glass houses.

And then we have the people who just give in and default to the belief that, hey, if the GOVERNMENT wants to peer into our lives and tell us what to do, well then they must have a good REASON for it. After all, they’re looking out for us, right? Uh-huh… riiiiiight… and if you believe that, then I have some prime wetland property to sell you.

Their biggest argument is "well, if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear. Only GUILTY people have something to fear and something to hide!"

Well maybe in a perfect world the "guilty" would have something to fear and something to hide, but all you have to do is look at the number of people who get released from prison because DNA testing proved they didn’t do the crime they were convicted of and you would know that there ARE some innocent people who do have something to fear from the government.

I’ve got news for those people who claim that only "the guilty" have something to hide… when you encounter a police officer or a prosecutor or a judge on a crusade, then they’re not impartial or objective. They’re biased. And if they have you in their sights, then they’re going to find SOMETHING on you to satisfy that bias. As far as they’re concerned, you’re guilty the moment they saw you. They just need a reason… ANY reason… to justify it. Having limits on the scope of government, preventing them from snooping into your life without just cause or just reason, helps to keep that natural abuse of power in check.

But I have a challenge for those of you who think that there is no such thing as a right to privacy. If you really believe that privacy is just a myth, then I challenge you to prove it by example!

Get rid of your blinds, curtains, and window shades.

If you have absolutely NOTHING to hide, then you shouldn’t even NEED blinds, curtains, or window shades. Don’t use close your inside doors. Leave them open for EVERYONE to see! Let EVERYONE see what you and your family members are doing at all times. Eating, sleeping, bathing… the works! After all, if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear, right? If people are looking in, then they MUST have a reason, right? And when you leave your home, your abode, your castle, don't lock it. Leave it unlocked for anyone to peer in if they so desire! If you believe that OUR lives should be a library of open books, then yours should be doubly so!

THIS, my friends, is the physical representation of what privacy is. It’s a window blind that YOU are supposed to control, showing just how much you feel comfortable with or just as much that you want others to be able to see. The people who advocate that there is no such thing as a right to privacy essentially argue that you’re even supposed to HAVE that window blind. Or if they will LET you have that blind, then it would be only under THEIR control, and not yours. All I’m doing here is challenging those people to demonstrate that they practice what they preach.

(Computer – some appropriate stuff that you’ll have to listen to appreciate)
(Fade Music In – "Who Am I" by Peace Orchestra)

When it comes to privacy, the old adage of "knowledge is power" is not only applicable, but also somewhat inadequate. Thanks to various so-called "information" companies that have sprung up in recent years, knowledge is not only power… it is also pretty damn profitable. The problem, of course, is that this profit is done at OUR expense, often WITHOUT our consent, and WE are the ones that bear the consequences when that knowledge is abused.

Of course, like all other kinds of power, there is something of a double standard. Those who do not have their lives under a microscope and yet still advocate that there is no such thing as a right to privacy have no problems advocating that OUR lives should be a library of open books… but they find themselves somewhat sensitive about who gets to view their own ongoing autobiography.

But then again, that’s nothing new when it comes to power. Pretty much anything that gives a person power over others is not something that is eagerly shared.

(Pause)

Brutally Honest is a Get Brutal production, all opinions expressed are those of the commentator, and may or may not be shared by the online provider. This is David Matthews 2 saying good night, and I’ll speak with you soon!

(Fade out)
(Computer – Ending/"End of Recording")

[End of program]
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