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This is disappointing, and almost misleading. There are several main reasons why people "don't care" about their privacy. 1) It hasn't been threatened in their
by pdeuchler 14y ago
This is disappointing, and almost misleading. There are several main reasons why people "don't care" about their privacy.
1) It hasn't been threatened in their lifetime before. The past 60 or so years have been pretty good for those fighting for civil liberties, though recently we seem to have reached a tipping point.
2) Lack of (good) education in the humanities and philosophies. I'd say the vast majority of America cannot correctly define "socialism" and "capitalism", much less be able to articulate the paths societies take towards them. For most to be able to imagine and understand a deterioration towards totalitarianism is almost absurd.
3) They don't care. "I don't care that the government knows my secrets." They have "nothing to hide". This ties in with number 2, in that there is a lack of fundamental understanding of concepts like "liberty" and "privacy", which creates a dichotomy where people can appreciate privacy, but still voluntarily give it up.
And that's not even including things like "protest fatigue", willful obfuscation of issues, and the vast amount of money changing hands.
Edit: It seems like the WaPo article is hardly better. For shame, really. It almost seems like a purposeful attack (though I shouldn't attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity)
- batgaijin 14y agoHey now. Let's pretend, for whatever reason that the government didn't give two shits. Well? There would still be a cabal of corporations trying to make us better consumers. Idk, relevant policy requires smart willing participants. Even if you took away the main antagonizer it wouldn't actually change anything. You can make people afraid of the government but you can't teach them to be careful of being a useful idiot to others.
- eli_gottlieb 14y ago4) Low population density. Low population density. LOW POPULATION DENSITY!!! Americans kvetch plenty online about their loss of privacy. /r/politics and other fora are easy indications, even Facebook statuses show it. You don't get mass protests because the settlement pattern of America is well-designed for incapacitating mass action. Mass action of any kind requires physical togetherness, which requires density, on several different levels.
- brador 14y agoThis doesn't gel with reality. Civil war worked out ok with even less density. The truth is no one knows their neigbor. There's no sense of community here with those around us.
- eli_gottlieb 14y agoThe Civil War was fought by state/national governments. But you do have a point that many rural populations have shown higher social solidarity than even urban Americans show today.
- opminion 14y agoThe past 60 or so years have been pretty good for those fighting for civil liberties, though recently we seem to have reached a tipping point. It does not look like the tipping point has been reached yet in developing countries.
- WayneDB 14y agoI'd say 1) The people who use the Internet the most...are too dependent upon the system. They haven't the time or energy for a proper protest.