The Already Screwed Theory
Of all the arguments in defense of the Bush administration’s tendency to spy illegally on the communications of US citizens, the strangest by far is the “Already Screwed” theory, which maintains that our privacy is compromised on a daily basis anyway, by forces inside the government and out, so another set of prying eyes hardly matters. So we shouldn’t worry about it.
I frankly find this line of reasoning mystifying, even though I do agree with its predicate: our privacy is constantly assaulted on every front, via tracking cookies that monitor our surfing habits or web sites that sell our phone records to anyone willing to pay or national security letters that give the FBI unfettered access to our personal data. Real privacy is much harder to come by in this country than it used to be. But I’m not sure why that makes it ok for the government to listen in on our phone conversations without a warrant.
Here’s a scenario. You’re robbed one night: a burglar comes into your house and makes off with your stash of petty cash, some jewelry, and, say, a prized 20-sided die whose loss affects you very deeply. When you wake up in the morning and discover the theft, you feel more than just financially stricken. Someone has come into your house without your permission and taken something that wasn’t theirs. You’re angry and bereaved. You feel helpless, violated.
Ok. Imagine a couple of days later you’re sitting at your desk when an official looking guy in a grey suit comes by and sits down and tells you that he’s from the government, and he’d like access to your bank account, please, along with power of attorney over all your financial affairs. You ask him why the hell he needs that, and he says he’d like to take all the money out of your savings account and put it into his. When you protest, he says, well, you were just robbed yesterday, weren’t you? I mean, you’ve already been robbed. It’s not like you haven’t been robbed before. So what’s the big deal? I’m just going to rob you a little more. Oh, and also I’m the government.
It doesn’t make any sense. The fact that our privacy is dwindling doesn’t mean that we should just give it up entirely … it means we should do everything in our power to get back what we’ve lost. At the very least, it means we need to keep a very tight hold on what little we have left.
2 Comments