Privacy

“In a country born on the will to be free, what could be more fundamental?” – Sam Seaborn on The West Wing, in reference to the right to privacy.

I was reminded the other night of why I so loved the early Aaron Sorkin scripts for The West Wing. The right to privacy has taken some hits of late – say, in the last decade or so. And this quote says it all.

The problem is not that John Ashcroft was Attorney General or that the current Supremes are generally not fans of the Bill of Rights and it’s not the half-trained cretins who shout orders at us while looking through our stuff and checking out our virtual naked bodkins while in the queue to take a flight to Pocatello. There have always been badge-heavy cretins who were too ready to become drunk at a little power.

The problem is not cops who feel free to stop and interrogate anyone for any reason or no reason at all and it is not even the cameras they’ve been putting up all over town in so many of our cities. Nor is it social media that analyze our every keystroke so they can sell our habits to…  well, we really don’t know to whom they sell this information now, do we?

None of those things is the problem. Not really. The problem is that so very few people seem to think these problems are problems. The problem is that we let them get away with it.

I agree with that imaginary sage, Sam Seaborn. Privacy is fundamental. And in giving it up without so much as a whimper, we’re abrogating our responsibility as members of a free society. Freedom requires vigilance and so far as I can tell, there’s no one standing on the ramparts.