Privacy
It seems to me, while thinking about the world today, that our idea of privacy is something completely different from perhaps 100 years ago. I was thinking about some of the old movies I've seen about intrigue, with guys nervously whispering into phones or surrepticiously slipping a note to someone else, and about how terrorists have to be tracked down today, and the difference is striking.
There have always been terrorists among us. Before Oklahoma City the biggest loss of civilian life in the country's history was a bombing on Wall Street in the 1920s, a crime that was never solved. Looking through history we could legitimately call Viking raiders terrorists, and Spartacus, and so on. These people were pretty easy to identify and track down in their day because to effectively communicate they had to be physically together. When bad guys have to gather together in the same room, they're relatively easy to catch.
Things changed with the automatic-dial telephone, when there was no longer the chance a human operator might be listening in on a "private" conversation, but still a person had to be at a phone attached to a building, or at least an identifiable public phone. Communication between criminal types was getting easier, but still had restrictions. Today, though, you can have a conference call on your cell phone from practically anywhere you want to stand. You can go to a public library and quietly send mass emails to your terrorist friends throughout the world.
Meanwhile, the idea of privacy has entered our legal system. Birth control items were largely illegal early in the 20th Century until court rulings declared that a "right to privacy" covered the use of such items. That Supreme Court case later was applied to Roe v. Wade, the abortion ruling. So we've got this new idea of the sanctity of privacy, added to the ability to communicate widely in complete privacy.
At this point my thoughts trail off. I think what has struck me is simply that those who wish to hide their plans from public notice have a much easier time of it now than ever before. As usual, what western man has nurtured in his culture, the right to privacy, was meant as a benevolence but is corrupted and abused by those who would do evil.
There have always been terrorists among us. Before Oklahoma City the biggest loss of civilian life in the country's history was a bombing on Wall Street in the 1920s, a crime that was never solved. Looking through history we could legitimately call Viking raiders terrorists, and Spartacus, and so on. These people were pretty easy to identify and track down in their day because to effectively communicate they had to be physically together. When bad guys have to gather together in the same room, they're relatively easy to catch.
Things changed with the automatic-dial telephone, when there was no longer the chance a human operator might be listening in on a "private" conversation, but still a person had to be at a phone attached to a building, or at least an identifiable public phone. Communication between criminal types was getting easier, but still had restrictions. Today, though, you can have a conference call on your cell phone from practically anywhere you want to stand. You can go to a public library and quietly send mass emails to your terrorist friends throughout the world.
Meanwhile, the idea of privacy has entered our legal system. Birth control items were largely illegal early in the 20th Century until court rulings declared that a "right to privacy" covered the use of such items. That Supreme Court case later was applied to Roe v. Wade, the abortion ruling. So we've got this new idea of the sanctity of privacy, added to the ability to communicate widely in complete privacy.
At this point my thoughts trail off. I think what has struck me is simply that those who wish to hide their plans from public notice have a much easier time of it now than ever before. As usual, what western man has nurtured in his culture, the right to privacy, was meant as a benevolence but is corrupted and abused by those who would do evil.
posted by Crrrrrrraig | 9:38 AM
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