For those of you who refused to go see Fahrenheit 911, I’ll let you in on the key concept that emerged from that movie as it relates to how the Bush administration latched onto the war on terror: War is good for business. It’s been said many times before and it never becomes less true. The war on terror is good for business. Especially the security business. Unfortunately, what’s good for the security business may not be quite so good for privacy and civil rights.
9/11 and the way politicians from both parties jumped on it immediately led most of us to suspect that the security of our country wasn’t all it could or should be. And that fear naturally has led to a demand for greater security. How else to explain the patently unconstitutional legislation paradoxically known as the Patriot Act? The Bush League essentially created a new nationwide demand for something that is only arguably really necessary. By fueling the flames of fear that our security was in danger, billions of dollars have been poured into high tech research for even higher tech security equipment. The potential for creating an America in which privacy will become virtually an unknown, barely-remembered entity is highly likely.
What kind of new high tech security equipment are we talking about? How about a so-called lie detector that is not only freed from the inconvenience of all those electrodes and wires and readouts but-far worse-freed from the need for any actual consent of the person taking the lie detector. Actually, the absolute worst thing about this new high tech lie detector is that it maintains the roughly 75% accuracy of the old-fashioned lie detector. Now, correct me if I’d wrong, but is a lie detector that gets it wrong a full quarter of the time really any better than a psychic who is just guessing? How does this new breed of lie detector work and what makes it more dangerous for those concerned with the right of privacy than the old-fashioned lie detector? The way it works is by scanning the heat patterns that a person gives off, as well as muscular contractions when the subject is answering a question. But here’s the thing: Since the suspect doesn’t have to sit down and get all jacked up with those tubes and wires and all that nonsense that marks a contemporary lie detector, it has the potential for being used without the subject even being aware of it. Admissible in court? Probably not. Will be used without permission anyway? You betcha.
High tech security equipment will include video surveillance of the type that you can’t imagine right now. You know those grainy images recorded on convenience store cameras? Soon they will be high-definition full color that allows zooming in so close you’ll be able to count nose hairs. The surveillance cameras of the future will make the video on your average television look like something currently available on dial-up internet service. And you think hidden cameras are hard to detect now? Not only do the tiny hidden cameras of today provide crappy quality, but they can be disabled by your average teenager. The hidden security cameras of tomorrow won’t be so easily found and will provide exponentially better quality. Needless to say the NSA will be using these cameras, but you would do well to also suspect that your employer is using them as well. Just in case.
Do you wear a name tag at work? Do you steal pens from your work? In the very near future beware of where you go when you’ve got a name tag and certainly beware of stealing supplies. Tags, pens, keys, cards-really pretty much anything could contain a global positioning device that lets your employer or anyone else know your exact whereabouts any time you’ve got it in your possession. I recently wrote an article about how most employers have the legal right to fire an employee for something they do on their own time. If you are carrying around a global positioning device then while you have it in your possession you don’t even have your own time anymore.
The war on terror has destroyed most of the American economy because it is taking so much money to beat the wrong suspects in Iraq. But there is a mini-boom taking place in nanotechnology and high tech security equipment. Will these things prevent another terrorist attack in the future. Possible, I suppose. Of course, all it would have taken to stop 9/11 was for someone to realize that a bunch of Middle Eastern looking guys were learning to fly a plane, but not to land it, so I’m still no convinced that advances in technology is the key. I do know that with each leap forward in security technology it represents an even bigger leap toward the day when none of us can ever be 100% sure that we aren’t being taped or watched or tracked twenty-four hours a day.
