Zeitgeist- David Galland

Zeitgeist

By David Galland

I recently had the opportunity to speak with an acquaintance of mine who is a serving police officer, albeit in a small town that will go unnamed in order to protect his identity and possibly his job.

This particular town, like so many others, is now festooned with a modern, oversized Homeland Security Center (formally known as a police and fire station). In response to my question as to how he liked the new digs, he told me that they were quite spacious and even a bit luxurious, complete with automatic lights, water taps and even toilets. He also told me that the building was set up so that, on a moment's notice, an entire emergency federal task force could be moved in, plugged in, and ready to operate.

Further on in the conversation, he let it be known that the police department in this rural town, a place where anything more than the most minor of crimes is virtually unknown, will soon have its squad cars outfitted with special equipment allowing its officers to pull up next to a bank, school, or any number of other buildings and wirelessly tap into the security camera system to observe what's going on.

It was at that point that I couldn't help but comment, "You know, all of these sort of things are a bit concerning to the average citizen, wouldn't you agree?"

To which he nodded in agreement, before adding, "Personally, I'm a lot more worried about the corporations."

I like this guy, but that comment crossed a personal line with me, and so I said, somewhat stridently, "Seriously? Listen, unlike the government, which can force you to do things that you don't want to do - under penalty of jail or worse - corporations can't force you to do anything. In fact, they have to treat you right in order to earn your business."

In response, he waved his hands to break into my modestly indignant diatribe and proceeded to clarify his position - tellingly, in a lowered voice. What he said caught me by surprise.

"No, you don't understand. That's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about are the corporations that are now working with us. You see, it's illegal for the government to keep certain kinds of data on the public without a court order. That's not the case for the corporations. Get it? Technically, we don't keep the data, the corporations do, we just access it. That's what worries me."

Before the conversation could go any further, we were called to our respective responsibilities and so left it at that.

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Enjoy.

As a friend once told me...

Sorry for the nausea, bro.

Resist.