Privacy

on privacy

another daydream post. i'm not an expert.

i read somewhere that the concept of privacy is a recent invention, and that people nowadays don't think of wanting to preserve their privacy, rather, they consider it as asset to be trade-able for goods or services, which might imply that the concept of privacy as a kind of personal freedom in the so called "traditional" sense, may already be fighting its last fight.

i have previously read of a few viewpoints on why you need privacy which i shall summarize briefly below:

1. Nobody is perfect. Given the correct conditions, some law can always be used against you, even if you think you have nothing to hide.

2. Knowledge is power. Knowledge of who you are and what you do (1) psychologically give people power over you, causing you to act differently by knowing that you are being watched, and, (2) gives people a means to social engineer a situation into deriving some advantage off you.

3. Victimless crimes are committed in private when people are experimenting or trying to sort things out and figure out their lives, and that ultimately leads to progress of the individual or society as a whole.

but i stopped to think today.

Human society has so far been in its nature once which is close-knit, where people are deeply involved, interacting which each other in ways that are beyond what the law provided clear-cut rules for. There always are people who want to get into your head or your pants to get something out of you so that they can gain some kind of advantage, or so that they can "help" you. Everybody always needs everybody's help so that the "greater good" is finally achieved.

Such an environment keeps society together. Put it in other words - society is self-perpetuating through the deployment of mechanisms such as the use of power to directly or psychologically affect or limit any actions to modify it. I say "deploy" because I think the State consciously created these mechanisms ether directly or indirectly. And given free rein, this mechanism can be exploited, perhaps, to the point where society is perpetuated for the sole purpose of perpetuation, such that individuals are continually born into the society, work for the society, but derive no innate pleasure or advantage from doing so.

The concept of privacy to me, is basically saying "beyond this line, I can manage on my own". Which means, privacy for me, is that line we draw to say, okay, this is as much you (society/State) need to be bothered about.

What if, the mechanisms that perpetuate society, do not work anymore?

What if one day, someone doing a term in jail is viewed at with the same attitude as someone who paid a speeding fine? And nobody would care less if who you slept with as long as you are doing a great job as the president?

How would privacy change?