Are there reasons to be paranoid? You bet. Did you know that some bus lines in the US are installing new cameras with microphones on the buses? That way Big Brother will not only see what you're doing but will hear what you're saying. I'm sure it won't be long before these cameras will be installed at airports, train stations, shopping malls, schools, and city streets.
Of course you probably know that all of your email, social media, and phone conversations already are being recorded and stored. By the way, last year it was revealed that among the words the Departmanet of Homeland Security analysts are watching for in your Tweets are "pork," "cloud" and "Mexico." They have also been instructed to identify media reports that "reflect adversely on DHS." (You're doing a heck of a job, guys! Move on to the next blog, there's nothing adverse here....).
Many people say, "Well, If you're not doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about."
The problem is that what is defined as "wrong" can change very quickly. Just ask descendents of the Jews who lived in Germany in the 30's. Or the Catholics. Or the gays.
Or cast your mind back to Richard Nixon's Enemies List. What he would have been able to do if he'd had today's technology!
And that pesky anti-war movement that developed after LBJ manufactured The Gulf of Tonkin second attack as a pretext for widening the war in VietNam...wouldn't it have been handy to know everything those unpatriotic hippies were saying?
Good luck, whistleblowers of the future. You will barely have time to pucker before there's a knock on your door.
HOWEVER...
Fighting for the right to privacy and the Constitutional guarantees that no longer seem to count for much is one thing; letting fear and negativity overshadow our daily life is another.
For that reason, I'd like to suggest that you also try practicing pronoia. I first heard this term used by Richard Bandler, but I'm not sure whether he invented it.
It means the active belief that somebody is plotting on your behalf. Plotting to help you. They could be anywhere and they could strike at any time.
I encountered one such person yesterday. She works at the Tottenham Court Road branch of Ryman's and she went out of her way to give me a quantity discount when I bought a big batch of folders.
Another example: the nice folks at Mozilla. Sometimes they let free-lancers use their big meeting space and eat their snacks and drink their Red Bull for free.
Then there are the people behind the best iPad app I've found: Zite. It aggregates news and feature articles on topics that you select and presents them beautifully, with no ads. I don't know how they're making money but they're not charging us, so I know they're in on this movement.
If you start the day wondering what will happen to prove that your pronoia is justified usually you'll end the day with at least one great example.
Give it a try. I'm on your side (shhhhh!)
