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[Alton Speers]

I daily wrestle with this whole privacy thing. Not so much as trying to remain unseen or obfuscated from corporate/public view but, the fundamental whys and wherefores of privacy. Problem is, I like being me and I'm really not all that interested in hiding me from the world. And herein lies the rub. To me, privacy is hiding myself, my actions, my desires, my intents and more away from the world. I don't want to hide myself away.

On the other hand, I am well aware that these info/data vacuums are active and not for my benefit. The corporate data-suckers seek to ultimately exclude me because my wealth/income is not visibly sufficient for their desire which is, of course, to extract that wealth/income from me in exchange for their goods and services. Instead, since I won't and don't cooperate with their schemes, I am lumped in with the mass American market. I'm a cheapskate who doesn't drop a grand or five on every new, exciting, luxurious bauble that comes down the pike. I shop and buy with intent. I live on the cheap. I'm one of the few Americans that still believe in having funds set aside for a rainy day. I'm not a good supporter of the corporate profit plan.

This irks me no end. By gathering all of this data the corporations intend to strip me of my autonomy in the marketplace. I am the customer. I am the consumer. I am the raison d'etre for the existence of each and every business on the face of this planet. Without my money, without my purchases, without my needs and desires for goods and services, businesses could not exist. Who will buy a widget when they are unwanted or unneeded? Yet, these corporations seek to treat me as a reverse gumball machine...they put a product or service into the slot, operate the lever and out pops a dollar. I've been objectified. Stripped of my individuality and autonomy. I'm nothing more than an ATM to these businesses.

So I resist. I take voting with my dollars very, very seriously. Whenever possible and practical I buy locally produced goods and services. I shop with the independent businessperson rather than the corporate bots. When I do shop at the mega-marts I buy only what I absolutely have to. I reject all of their offers for discount cards and money-saving programs. And to really ruin the experience for them I pay with cash. I may be on their surveillance tapes but, I'm not found in their databases. This worked well until the advent of RFID and the long practiced corporate/government move toward a cashless society. From employment to bank to market the entire system has been rigged to deprive me of my economic autonomy. Where I've banked for years, the tellers still ask for ID when I withdraw cash. This is the doing of the government.

The government is the obverse side of this coin. The dark, hidden side. Despite all the reasons and justifications proffered by the government, it's sole objective always has been, is and will be, control of the individual. Government can brook no competition in sovereignty or allegiance. Government seeks to quash all autonomy except it's own. This extends beyond the natural realm of economics which is the foundation of any society beyond the single generation nuclear family.  Yes, government appears to control economics but, that is just a show, a distraction for the masses. Government, too, is an unwitting yet willing pawn of the banksters and real monied people of this world. Government is also the facilitator of the banksters schemes.

Still, government has it's own agenda. It does so because it realizes it's position as #3 below the banksters. The #2 position is held by religion. ALL religion which is considered mainstream. religion, quite sadly, still holds greater sway over the beliefs of people than government. Something for which governments are indeed envious. Even so, governments are the most visible force intervening daily in the lives of individuals. Government is both behind the scenes and in your face each and every day with the message that You Will Submit. You Will Comply. There is Nothing that You Can Do that We are Not Aware Of. It really doesn't matter what level of government these messages come from. They could come from the local dogcatcher, the seemingly friendly mailman, the cop on the beat, a local state representative, your state's attorney general, a federal senator or the whitehouse press secretary. The source simply doesn't matter any more as all agents, representatives and functionaries of government from the local public school teacher to the president of the US, ALL speak with one voice...authority. And they yammer all the time! Their message is spoken and heard 24 hours/day, 365 and 1/4 days per year. You can't escape the voice. It's on all electronic media, billboards, signs, license plates. It has permeated so deeply into the culture that it has it's own architectural/furniture/design style which was last updated in the 1930's. Someone here at TCF did or does have a tag line which read ( I paraphrase here)"George Orwell was an optimist". The "Big Bother" of our reality seems to be much more pervasive and much more freely accepted. Yet the effect is the same as outlined in Orwell's "1984", autonomy of the individual is the enemy. It is the target of all government action. What we call privacy is, in fact, our autonomy. The invasive nature of the extraction of our personal data and factoids of our lives are but the effect of autonomy being constrained and destroyed. It is like a cancer on our souls, if you believe in such a thing. Even if you don't, you certainly understand the parasitic nature of a cancer. It's a separate life form which exists to eat away at our flesh from the inside. In like manner so does the government eat away at our lives from the inside. It insinuates itself into all of our affairs seeking to manipulate and control them to whatever level of detail it can get away with. the essence, the lifeblood if you will, of an individual's political, societal and social life is not privacy. It is autonomy. It is the ability to act in one's own self-interest, deciding for one's self, according to one's own standards, what is in the best of the self and acting accordingly. Government is here to prevent that. And doing a mighty fine job in my not-so-humble opinion.

Because it is autonomy which is at stake in these near-tyrannical times, this axiomaticly excludes notions of a collective. Collective based solutions are not the answer. The one and only solution is to re-assert autonomy. Essentially, do what you will without regard to laws, regulations and policies. Yet, not surprisingly in the least, the government has already declared such acts to be criminal. The acts of lawless persons who are not fit (fully "sheeplized" enough) to live in this society. The plain and simple fact is that exercises of autonomy are not allowed by this government. Should this be considered a conundrum? A catch-22? Yes. So what to do? That's for you to decide. It is time to exercise your autonomy to whatever degree you feel you can handle. Yes, it is a risk. There could be consequences according to the law (assuming you get caught). Still, if autonomy is to be re-asserted, reclaimed as the active principle of life, then strength and courage must be found (wherever it may be hidden) to bolster the fundamental action of life - living free.

Alton

 

[rayray]

Well said.  You don't have to give up on everything to live a private life. You just have to be willing to do the work even if that means working around certain laws but most people's mindeset is so far from what you said it is an enormous task so we have to keep it as easy to understand as possible when out there in the world.  I have read through post after post about this subject here and elsewhere but can only come up with answers that mean something to me.  When I started my journey towards a stateless frame of mind, the obsatcles were huge but now I keep to myself for the most part and try like crazy to modify what I talk to people about.  Companies, governments and so on don't have much influence in my life anymore but have mangaged so far to live a fairly comfortable life.  I work for myself, I don't talk to neighbors about what I do except in the past tense.  To be free is hard work at first, but with anything, it takes time to hone your skills.  Sometimes I think it is time to move somewhere else but I have family.  Maybe when they are gone as we all will be, I'll make my move.  I like your idea about autonomy being important but isn't it a drag that autonomy and privacy walk hand in hand?

[Pagan]

Alton, I don't have any answers, but you got it right 100%. Thanks for saying it.

The plain and simple fact is that exercises of autonomy are not allowed by this government.

This puts the burden of guilt on government. It has reneged on every single law it passed, and on every single moral code it professed to believe. It no longer has a right to speak for any one of us -- if it EVER did.  

If we, as individuals, had the capacity to act as judge and jury, government  should be sentenced and hung. At the very least it would be tarred and feathered and run out of town.

So -- as individuals, what are we going to do about it?
I can't speak for anyone else, but I know I'm doing, and I have a timetable to get it done.


 

[Roy J. Tellason]

 

I daily wrestle with this whole privacy thing. Not so much as trying to remain unseen or obfuscated from corporate/public view but, the fundamental whys and wherefores of privacy. Problem is, I like being me and I'm really not all that interested in hiding me from the world. And herein lies the rub. To me, privacy is hiding myself, my actions, my desires, my intents and more away from the world. I don't want to hide myself away.

Me neither.

Where I've banked for years, the tellers still ask for ID when I withdraw cash. This is the doing of the government.

I haven't tried it lately, and they may indeed be more of a PITA about it lately than they used to be,  but the last time I complained about it they said that it was until they got to know me in that particular branch,  which was a relatively new one at the time.  We shall see.

Someone here at TCF did or does have a tag line which read ( I paraphrase here)"George Orwell was an optimist".

Debra uses that,  I think.

Government is both behind the scenes and in your face each and every day with the message that You Will Submit. You Will Comply.

Like bloody hell I will.
 

[Shevek]

The plain and simple fact is that exercises of autonomy are not allowed by this government.

True. Under the common law, one could assume any alias as long as one did not commit fraud, and as long as other enjoined parties could find you and seek relief to resolve disputes. Today, under such a mentality, one is considered a terrorist or a tax cheat. Well that might be true anyway, but that's beside the point [grin].

Doesn't matter, I still use aliases. And I still have a habit of being dyslexic and transposing SSN numbers, although I can't remember the last time I actually shared that information with anybody.

I live a life with a high degree of privacy. I receive about three pieces of snail mail junk per year. I receive about two unsolicited phone calls per year. For the most part I don't try to hide from the JBTs, but I don't tell them anything voluntarily.

But in the end, I'm suffocating because of the general malaise that runs rampant throughout the land with the way most people are brainwashed. I'm simply growing tired of fighting the nonsense. I feel the same way as Alton. I don't want to hide from people. But the general mentality of people these days seems to require an effort in that direction.

If we, as individuals, had the capacity to act as judge and jury, government should be sentenced and hung. At the very least it would be tarred and feathered and run out of town.

At one time I felt that way. Now, I'd rather just ignore them. Nothing irritates a bully or a punk more than to be ignored. Especially a bully or punk who grows up to be a politician or licensed thug.

Where I've banked for years, the tellers still ask for ID when I withdraw cash. This is the doing of the government.

Not really. This is the doing of people who refuse to think for themselves and refuse to be self-determining.

When I lived in the city, I never showed ID to do my banking business. I did my banking with a small branch office and I never used the drive-through. I used the ugly teller only in emergencies. I always went inside and chatted with the tellers, most of whom were moms and grandmas. I always asked about the kids or grandkids. The one time I applied for a small loan to buy some new computer equipment for my then business, the loan officer approved me on sight. She later told me that I would not believe how many people they never have met, people who only use the drive-through and ugly teller, and then pop in one day, ask for a loan, and expect a smile and no resistance simply because they have had an account for a few years. Everybody in that branch office knew me.

After I moved to my current rural location, I was never once asked to show ID when I visited the local bank. And I did the same thing with the local bank tellers while I had an account. Since most of the tellers are moms and grandmas, simply talking about the kids and asking to see pictures is a perfect way to get them to know me---and you.

After I silently closed my accounts and went bankless, I still was never asked for ID because most of the tellers recognized me on sight. Unfortunately now, I haven't been in a bank in several years, so I don't know if that small-town charm still would work. Possibly, but only if some of the same tellers still worked there.

And this is the part that simply pisses me off about this modern world. I would not mind having a bank account simply to ease certain financial transactions and I actually enjoyed chatting with the tellers. They enjoyed talking to customers too. Every human wants to reach out and belong, and all of this horseshit today is destroying that kind of fabric of life.

The other day when I was in town, I stopped at the hardware store. Yes, hardware stores are just like you imagine them to be in rural areas. And unlike a city store, the people who work at a rural hardware store know their trade. I walked in and saw one of the workers. She (yes, she) asked if she could help me. Most of the long-term workers there recognize me from my house building days when I was at the store almost every other day. I'm no longer a name, but still a recognizable face. I told the worker I knew what parts I wanted, but I'd be grateful if she simply would show me where to find everything so I would not waste time looking endlessly. I was going to do the project one way, and once I explained my project she suggested another idea. Both ideas would suffice, but I opted for her plan. I then told her I needed some Round-Up concentrate and as we walked to a different isle, she joked that all of the workers there called that isle Death Row because that is where the kept all the weed and bug killer chemicals. I then needed some grass seed, and we talked about gardening and lawn care. Yeah, the trip took me about 30 minutes when I actually needed only about 10 minutes to grab the parts I needed.

So there is still some hope in this bleary world.

[rayray]

"Doesn't matter, I still use aliases. And I still have a habit of being dyslexic and transposing SSN numbers, although I can't remember the last time I actually shared that information with anybody."

Hah, I have a habit of not using the number at all.


For the banking though, every bank must establish Identity because of the Patriot Act.  Did you open your small town account without ID?  Once they "know their customer", you might not have to show ID these days, but know your identity has been established.  I know of one bank where you can cash a check under two hundred dollars without ID and without an account, it's called Charter One, but since they've been bought out this may change and you'd still have to convince the clerk to check their regs.  The government controls all banks, but in some, there is still minimal flexibility for them to establish small exceptions like I mentioned.

Using an alias is still worth looking into for other things by the way.  For instance, I get checks from people and either have them write them out to "cash" or some other name other than mine.  Then I use a mole to cash them, no problems so far and I keep my prints off them.

[Swein Asleifson]

To me, privacy is hiding myself, my actions, my desires, my intents and more away from the world. I don't want to hide myself away...

...So what to do? That's for you to decide. It is time to exercise your autonomy to whatever degree you feel you can handle. Yes, it is a risk. There could be consequences according to the law (assuming you get caught). Still, if autonomy is to be re-asserted, reclaimed as the active principle of life, then strength and courage must be found (wherever it may be hidden) to bolster the fundamental action of life - living free.

We shouldn't have to feel as though we need to hide.  Unfortunately, that doesn't match the current reality.  So what to do?  As you said, live as free as one is able,  which differs for every one of us.  It's also a continual learning process, which is probably part of the reason many of us are here.