Number Twenty-Five

Q: "Should citizens be prepared to give up personal freedoms and privacy during a national crisis?"


As we read in, "That's No Phone. That's My Tracker" written by Peter Maass and Megha Rajagopalan, GPS technology and our smart phones are able to track where we are, what we buy, who we're with, how much money is in our bank account, and other private things that we might not be aware of.  There are hundreds of cameras everywhere that watch our every move.  Now... when did we ever agree to this?
I looked up personal freedom and came across this definition: "when you have control over your reality to transform it, to change it, rather than having it imposed upon you that you can't really ask for more than that." (Mr. Knopfler)

I couldn't help but to think of 1984 and how the society that Winston lives in is the exact opposite of that definition.  The citizens believe that the way they live is how it's like to have freedom because they know of nothing else.  How do we know that what we think is personal freedom is even really personal freedom?  How do we know that we aren't being controlled just like in 1984?

Oops I think I kind of drifted off topic but that's okay.

In conclusion, I don't think that citizens should be prepared to give up personal freedoms and privacy during a national crisis because we already have.  There are creeps in the world that are able to know every little thing about us through our electronic devices and social media profiles.  Why should we have to officially give up personal freedoms and privacy during a national crisis if we are constantly being watched by all sorts of private companies and not even that was enough to prevent a national crisis (metaphorically speaking)?