Terrorist Watch Lists
The whole concept of privacy is about State/Government control. Privacy is one of the many ramifications arising from “The Power Elite” controlling “The Masses”. The greed of the Rich Class, the bankers, politicians, CEOs CFOs, Directors, oligarchs etc is a fundamentally hostile, selfish, it is an inhuman way to configure a so-called civilisation. This capitalist greed creates the need for privacy. Inequality creates the need for privacy. Capitalist selfishness, perpetuated by The Power Elite, creates the need for privacy .
Privacy is a system of control and privacy is also a symptom of control.
Generally I have a utopian view of technology. Utopia will arise due to the creation of Post-Scarcity via a molecular nanotech bio-computer-induced explosion of intelligence, revolving around humans (transhumans) and AI.
BUT... the continual failure by "The Power Elite" to mention or publicise the concept of Post-Scarcity causes me to fear the dark side of technology. I sometimes fear technology could merely be used to enslave The Masses.
What has promoted my recent fears about the Dark Side of Technology?
Classifying people who are not normally considered terrorists as "terrorists" causes my worries.
Sometimes we seem to be moving towards a situation where questioning authority, criticising the Establishment, or criticising the Government is seen as a potential terrorist threat.
I was concerned about recent pleas made to classify Julian Assange as a terrorist and Wikileaks as a terrorist organisation.
I thought terrorists killed people and blew things up, but it seems mere distribution of contentious information is now a terrorist threat.
That Wikileaks may be classified as terrorist organisation was on its own not enough to provoke my fears, although I was deeply concerned. My fears finally culminated after reading the following report about actor Mark Ruffalo being placed on a terrorist watch list due to his environmental concerns. Has Mark Ruffalo made any bomb threats? Is he likely to make any bomb threats? The answer is no, he is a respectable actor merely highlighting environmental concerns, but the reason he is classified as a potential terrorist is because he has opposed big-business, the natural gas business.
- [UPDATE: apparently Mark Ruffalo is not on a terror watch list. What happened was that regarding a documentary Mark was involved with... "Pennsylvania’s Homeland Security was monitoring these screenings and feeding information to the gas industry. And they got busted. It was a huge embarrassment and the head of their Homeland Security had to resign over it." So maybe things are not as bad as initially they seemed.]
- [ADDITIONAL UPDATE: maybe things are as bad as they seem: "Microsoft Corp. officials are considering using the camera on their new Kinect videogame system to target ads to people watching the games." Mircosoft has the potential to spy on people via videos games the user is playing: "Is Your Videogame Machine Watching You"]
Regular Americans are currently suffering extremely invasive TSA pat-downs at airport security check-ins. Grandmothers and 3 year old girls are often subjected to extreme body searches. The Government seems to think we are all terrorists. I will probably be placed on a terrorist watch list for writing this (although I am probably already on one) and you will probably be placed on a terrorist watch list for reading this.
Needless to say: I am peaceful, an utterly non violent person, and I hope you are the same, but despite our peaceful non-terrorist nature we could be deemed terrorists simply for free-thinking. I despise terrorism and do not condone violence in any shape or form, but we should be free to question authority, we should be free to think. In the future will free-thinking and criticism of Governments be considered terrorism? Sometimes I fear the freedoms of democracy are ending and we are entering an age of fascist-totalitarianism.
Why do politicians and business-moguls fail to mention Post-Scarcity?
Will technology solely be used for dark purposes such as enslavement?
I believe technology can easily create utopia but the arrival of utopia depends on enough people wanting it to happen. We need to raise awareness regarding Post-Scarcity. Pressure needs to be placed on Governments and businesses so that they plan for and expect utopia.
This is how we can overcome the dark side of technology and this is how we can transcend the issues of privacy.