ADVISORY: The following information is entirely of my own opinion and is naturally composed, therefore, of my own free will and with no outside co-ercion (sic!). This is in fact simply my chance to say my piece on the whole "national security" debate having seen "Citizenfour" and the excuses that are often used to monitor what we say or what we do!
Also, this may contain triggers for some, so please, read on with caution! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!
Well now that I'm about to touch literal dynamite because this is a touchy subject given the events depicted in CitizenFour allowed Edward Snowden to air his views on his terms without "outside co-ercion".
It's quite a jump going from Generosity/Stinginess to this, but one that I feel is necessary due to the impact that the 2014 documentary "Citizenfour" had upon me on Wednesday evening. So let me see what I can do and hopefully, by the end of it, you will see why I believe what I do and will be able to understand where I'm coming from and appreciate where I am going to.
Are you ready...?
I thought I'd get the warnings out of the way so that this cannot come back to bite me in the a$$ for not advising my peeps what I'm about to talk about.
Have you ever had that feeling you're being watched? You know the kind of sensation that you get when you walk through a town centre like someone in some high-rise office somewhere is overseeing your every move?
Don't worry, I'm not going to go all tinfoil-hat-brigade on you... it's just my way of referencing how people are often on camera more times than they would think throughout the day. You can go through a supermarket and chances are, you're on camera.
But who watches those that watch us?
That is the reason for my post today!
We have heard in the past twelve months of a certain series of security leaks that one Edward Snowden played a large part in across the globe and watching "Citizenfour" last Wednesday really got me thinking about the whole national security debate all over again.
When it comes down to it, we all like to feel safe, don't we?
We all like to feel that our best interests are at heart and that someone somewhere is watching out for us.
But what happens when that someone, or series of someone's, gets a little too close for comfort? What happens when they gain access to our voicemails, our calls, our texts, our emails?
We all saw what happened with the phone hacking scandal, didn't we?
Newspaper reporters and like thought they were untouchable hacking into celebrity & regular joe voicemail accounts and look what happened there...
My question I'm looking at today is are people's feelings & right to privacy something that should supercede so-called national security, especially when they surely have a right to such things as having voicemails hidden from their government, text messages hidden from their government etc etc...?
It's a big statement, or question, to ask especially when it comes to such a greater threat as terrorism because the government and security services certainly do need to know when terrorists are plotting on our shores.
At what point, though, do you draw the line and say that "regular joe's" have a right to anonymity? I know it causes confusion because you don't want to give people a right to privacy if they're planning on endangering life.
What of everyone else though? Do they have a right to such privacy? Because surely governments and security services don't need to know the contents of a shopping list, or that Dave is planning to visit Bob in Australia next March, right?
I realise that this could go on much longer & I have more to say on this, so next time I'll be putting my slant on things and answering once & for all whether I think it's right these so-called "security bills" keep trying to be pushed through so it becomes law in the UK for the government & MI5 etc to have access to all our important contact information.
There's only one thing that I can say at this point and that is a quote from a long-time favourite videogame of mine, purely for its absurdity in stating such a thing as this: -
All your base are belong to us!
Peace out, bro's!
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