Big Brother’s already in the house, assholes. He’s been here for years. What did you ever do about it? He —and by he, I mean the Government (local, state, and Federal), the phone company, your Internet and cable providers, and any of thousands of other online companies and regulatory bodies— has had your number forever. You don’t pay your mortgage or make a withdrawal from an ATM or call your spouse or look at porno or check out the news without some server somewhere recording that activity.
And you know what? You wouldn’t have it any other way. Because it makes life convenient, efficient, and pleasant. We are all connected that way —even the ones who have deluded themselves into thinking they aren’t.
So, if you will concede that Big Brother has been in your life and in your home for decades now, then you must ask the next question: since these various agencies and companies do possess so much information about you, why would any actual person in the employ of those agencies and companies wish to know something about you? They already have the information, but it takes an actual person to act on that information.
In the case of commercial interests in your information, the motivation to know something about you is basically just business. The phone company needs to “know” how many minutes you’ve used this month to “know” whether you should be charged more. The electric utility needs to “know” how much energy you’ve used this month to determine your charges. These companies are motivated by money. It’s worth it to them to actively use the data that you generate.
But the Government? Do you think they care that I use my cell phone to call my family or friends —most of whom live locally? I don’t care if they know. But what if I start calling numbers in Saudi Arabia or Pakistan? What if people in those countries start calling me on a regular basis using disposable cell phones? The Government’s data filters might pick up on this and red flag me.
And even though I won’t know that they have flagged me, I cannot fail to consider that they might have.
But I live my life, anyway. I call and go and do pretty much as I please because I am a law-abiding American who is confident enough in the institutions of my society to not think much of whether the G is collecting a file on me. That doesn’t make me a dumbass or a fascist sympathizer or indifferent to the consequences of surveillance in all of its forms, though —it just means that I understand that the Government is comprised of actual persons. An actual person would have to choose to investigate me for whatever it is that I might be doing that would justify such interest.
And, so, in the end, one must ask himself if he believes that the Government —the one led by that Zio-Nazi stooge, Chimpy McHitlerburton— has enough manpower and competence and reason to spend even a millisecond on my sorry, upper lower-class ass and what I am doing to [subvert the dominant paradigm].
I sleep tonight.