THYME Magazine

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume II, Issue LI

Pop-culture Pummelling of Privacy

The 'other' Weekly News Magazine [click to read] asks 'do you want to know a secret?'

WikiLeaks, according to Theodore Dalrymple [click to read] in City Journal, is unwittingly doing the work of totalitarianism. How so? Remember the telescreen in Big Brother. The dissolution of privacy is a fundamental aim of totalitarianism, and an essential ingredient in its implimentation.

Dalrymple says: "The idea behind WikiLeaks is that life should be an open book, that everything that is said and done should be immediately revealed to everybody, that there should be no secret agreements, deeds, or conversations. In the fanatically puritanical view of WikiLeaks, no one and no organization should have anything to hide. It is scarcely worth arguing against such a childish view of life. "

"The actual effect of WikiLeaks is likely to be profound and precisely the opposite of what it supposedly sets out to achieve. Far from making for a more open world, it could make for a much more closed one."

One has only to look to the old Soviet Union and the pervasive scrutiny of the KGB to see where this might be heading. You never knew if your neighbors were watching your every move and ratting on you. Far from building mutual trust, such a system destroys it.

"The dissolution of the distinction between the private and public spheres was one of the great aims of totalitarianism. Opening and reading other people’s e-mails is not different in principle from opening and reading other people’s letters."

Dalrymple sees the result of such a reign of assumed virtue being a new iron curtain being thrown across the entire civilized world.

We Can Publish Anything Now
Is Our Information Any Good Though?

WikiLeaks proves that never before has it been easier to put information in front of so wide an audience. It also proves once again that the internet freely mixes the true, the untrue and the really sketchy. There may be a lot of information out there, but how are we to process it?

The old rules of knowing your source and verification are needed now more than ever.

Some Information is Just Plain Wrong

Global warming, the coming ice age, Keynesian economics, the notion that Man is basically good but institutions corrupt him and a host of other ideas shape the people who shape our policy. How do we know these notions are sound? Our President recently placed a seven year ban on oil exploration off our coasts -- at a time when such a move makes us ever more vulnerable to foreign forces. The President's actions may pose a far greater risk to national security than WikiLeaks.

SWAC Girl Writes More [click to read] on the President's ban. She quotes Governor McDonnell:

“I am extremely disappointed that the Obama Administration has unilaterally blocked environmentally responsible, and economically crucial, offshore energy exploration and development in Virginia, along the Atlantic Coast and throughout other broad swaths of offshore territory nationwide. This is an irresponsible and short-sighted decision. It demonstrates a complete lack of confidence in the entrepreneurial spirit of American industry and its ability to fix the problems experienced in the Gulf spill, and no confidence in the ability of the U.S. government to better plan for and react to offshore emergencies."

McDonnell went on to say that this will increase our dependence on foreign energy sources and have a negative impact on business.