Thursday, October 12, 2006

Conspiracty Theories.


Our new baby up to a whopping 6 pounds.

I stumbled upon author David Southwell's blog awhile ago, and I'm glad I did. While the subject of conspiracy theories and government lies may not seem to mix appropriately with precious, innocent babies, it does. I think about the state our country will be in when she and her sisters are my age. I worry about what kind of legacy we're leaving behind. I'm going to be watching those of my peers that I've entrusted with making the decisions for my country much more closely.

While I'm basically a happy, goofy person, blessed (or cursed) with the need to find the humour in everything... there are limits. There is nothing funny about a pedophile, a serial killer or the KKK. There's nothing funny about tracking every detail of a private citizen's life from their shopping preferences to their stock portfolios to the e-mail and phone calls they make to a friend. The lure of easier, faster, better when it comes to technology is a siren call that's hard to resist. But people have been twisting good into evil since time began.

It's been easy for me to lose track of just how fast the world is changing. I live in a small town that still announces it's lunch time with hymns from the bell tower of the Church of Christ. We have one grocery store and a pharmacist that will open the store at 3 a.m. on Saturday morning if you've hurt yourself and need your pain pills. Most of the shops on Main Street don't even take credit cards. There are no metal detectors at my high school. I wasn't paying attention to much of anything but my happy life until I heard about grocery stores issuing "shopping cards" entitling the holders to discounts. A voluntary program, the store uses the records provided by the cards to track everything from restocking to determing the brands their public prefers. "Track" is the operative word.

I was trying to imagine what I could do if I knew absolutely everything about a person. From their favorite color to their choices in breakfast cereal, and the websites they visit in secret. Blackmail comes first to mind, but that's because I'm a simple person, I like things stripped right down the bare, unfrilled bones. Manipulation is the likely action. Someone smarter than me, armed with the knowledge of everything about a group of people, is a dangerous entity. The technology to do this already exists, we need to be watching.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ohhhh she is so precious.

I worry about what kind of world my grandchildren will live in too. Things were, indeed, simplier when I grew up in the 50's.

Dave said...

On a small scale you can track everything by communication which is lost when you get bigger, so maybe thats how the big stores justify keeping tabs on their customers. As there are some devious people in this world then we do need to know whats going on. But its a fine line btween knowing and prying.

Your town sounds a kindly and trusting place and I suggest thats its that way because its small. As you know you dont always get that in a city so enjoy it.

As the adverts say "go large" but there is a price to be paid all round.

Gela said...

I don't even have any children yet and I also think about the things that they will be exposed to, things that are negative but glorified as ok.

The Rev. Dr. Kate said...

What a beautiful baby!!! And I think you are right to worry. Not only do the powers that be know so much about us, technology lets us know about so many things we wouldn't otherwise know. Superfluous information fills our heads and keeps us from having the time to focus on the really important things the people in power don't want us to know. God help us all!

Kat Campbell said...

Hi Faye! Things were definately different in the 50's. Thanks for dropping by.

It's the prying that makes me nuts davem. This is a lovely place to live, I'm grateful every day for having found it.

Gela, I have an abiding faith that good will always conquor evil, but only if we shake off our apathy and truly believe we have the power to make changes.

Good point Dr. Kate, my Dad used to say "garbage in, garbage out". It's getting tougher to identify the garbage!

Jackie's Garden said...

Precious picture, Kat. I worry too, about the grandbabies. You stated, very well, some of what we all fear. I'm afraid some day we'll all have a little chip implanted in the back of our hands - we'll be like little robots. And cloning - that thought brings chills up and down my spine!

Kat Campbell said...

Cloning scares me to death too jackie! I truly believe mankind has the ability to recreate the form, but who will be supplying the soul?

Kat Campbell said...

Excellent point bobciz

Anonymous said...

I'm afraid I also worry about technology that is already as frightening and intrusive as Orson Wells' Big Brother. The next step is probably bar coding the back of our necks. *shudder*. They say if you have nothing to hide why worry! But its like having a stalker looking through a keyhole, it gives me the creeps.

Kat Campbell said...

Me too, Sandy, there just isn't any reason to know everything about everybody.

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

Ohh, baby is adorable. I don't have children but I have nephews, niece...and it's not technology I worry about...it's the whole global warming thing that makes me fret. I worry about leaving them with no water in the future. I know, I know, laugh, I'm silly. But I do worry about no water for them in the future.

Kat Campbell said...

A very real worry GG, global warming is not a fairy tale, we're seeing the results right now. My friend in Australia has literally months with no rain... it could happen everywhere.

Anonymous said...

It's part of what they call Relationship Marketing and it is suppose to be for our benefits we're told. You know, if they know what the customers like they can get more stuff to please the customers as well as plan their promotional campaign around the needs of the customer and blah, blah.