In an age where people live their lives on the Internet, cell phones, through Apps, and electronic media like Wii and the old standby TV, where is the private life dwelling?
The Public and the Private have been issues of societies ever since people came together and agreed to create these types of unions, but now with the world as "leaky" and permeable as it is, and with so much surveillance equipment out there pointed back at us from every which way, privacy may be becoming a very different thing than it was for past generations.
Then again, there are a lot less satellites surveilling us, thanks to the G.W. Administration's neglect.
So a public, open society like the United States has its dilemma cut out for it: when threats to National Security can come from anywhere (leaks, terrorism, etc.) the private life of the public can become more and more at stake. As a release valve for such anxiety, the public takes to the "web" or the airwaves, to give themselves a shot of self-confidence. So Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, and all the other media-sharing methods (Yelp and U-Tube and IPhone Apps topping the list) give the private public a way of being part of "the moment" in a way never possible even 10 years prior!
Now, some of this technology does not work all that well all the times, as is typical of human inventions. But there are individuals out there perfecting the instruments of the public life of private citizens. Apple and a host of other companies are making IPads and Droids faster than consumers can absorb. So the private life goes flying through the air in texts and searches and phone calls and Apps like swarms of rabid hornets, and telecommunication companies fight over the placement of antennae in neighborhoods and cities to capture their public's waves. (Health effects? Time will tell...)
And certain countries have banned cell phone use for young children, isn't that odd? I guess they figure the present data is valid enough to keep the health of the young relatively out of harm's way.
Is there really a need to always be connected electronically to family, friends, and strangers?
Does the public truly have to fight for "cyber rights", or is this some knee-jerk reaction to everybody doing the same thing because it's "just the way it is"? Well, many people are part of the web community now, and they have to rely on someone or some technology to protect their private lives somehow. It's like magic for most of us, arcane knowledge. Again, most of us put our "faith" in the protective ability of the sites on the web. Why? It's easier that way.
But with the WikiLeaks controversy now, and the ATM scams becoming very advanced, and Spyware getting better and better, these are just examples of how the private life of An All-Too Public World is getting gobbled up and usurped by technocrats and techno-brats!
Better to stay off the web? The cell phone? The media rat race? Well, that's relative. Just make sure that your private, inner life is in order and not commandeered by the chaotic, wild forces of media-engineering and political hot-spotting. North Korea and Iran will do what they are going to do. Peace activists and capitalists will go on plying their wares. Green Peace and the ACLU will continue hiring young idealists through private companies to raise money for their issues, and you will buy groceries, and Phone Apps, and items on Overstock.com because this is easy.
People and luxury have not always gone together, but now more of us can luxuriate in some basic luxuries that never existed before. Credit allows this. Debt Culture allows the private life to accumulate what the public wants us to have, right?
And so, just be aware of where you are, who you are after you put down that cell phone, turn off that computer, or tv, and reaffirm in some small or big way that that is YOU and it's great being YOU, not just the personality in the body of YOU, but the private spirit that is connected with everything in the universe, your private hook-up, your link-up with the Eternal. Please, remember to do this, each and every day.
Until, next time,
Love and Peace.
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