Knowledge is Power!

Posted by Larry Miller on March 5, 2010 under How | Be the First to Comment

Many who watched the recent Super Bowl got to see two and a half million taxpayer dollars transferred into the hands of the formerly main stream media as we were treated to a mini-drama presented by C-list celebrities designed to encourage compliance with our government’s demands to know more and more about our personal lives. Now the time is approaching when we are expected to quietly tell the census takers not only how many toilets we have in our homes, but how often we use them.

It may seem like a small thing, and in broad scheme of things, it may be, but if we are not willing to resist the smaller intrusions into our lives, will be be able to find the courage to push back on bigger issues. If it is too much trouble to say “no” now, will be able to say “no” when they come to confiscate our firearms, or when they come to take our children because we are raising them to be Christians?

The Constitution authorizes the government to count us, but not to probe all areas of our existence. There are at least two reasons for this unwarranted seizure of our personal information. First, is the insatiable desire of some in power to know more and control more. Second is the oft discussed perversion called crony capitalism where the government supports and subsidizes favored marketplace competitors. Imagine the market research savings a corporation can realize if they can get the poor, unsuspecting taxpayers to foot the bill.

As anti-American and anti-consumer as this sounds, the growing body of information our government has about each of us, including the GPS coordinates of our homes presents the biggest threat, both for the information itself and the acceptance of Washington’s right to know all sorts of details that are just none of their business. With the current technology, there appears to be no end to the amount of data they can gather and retain about each one of us… which, even if their intentions were benign… they could not ensure it’s security. So not only would our personal information lie in the hands of those who would control us, but could well end up in the hands of the who would add to the damage.

To be fair, we need to cooperate and tell the government how many of us there are. Beyond that, we need to remember that knowledge is power. We just have to consider how much more power we want to give them.