Now that the government is not a government, we have a chance to think freely about what government is. I’ll begin with a philosophical demonstration. Say you have a barrel of apples, and you’re asked to pick the biggest apple. That’s a no-brainer, right? And if you are asked to pick the reddest apple. That, too, is a no-brainer. And everyone would agree with your choices. What happens if you are asked to pick the biggest, reddest apple? Problem? Everyone might have a different pick. And everyone would have a reasonable explanation of why their choice is right. If the question is to pick the biggest, reddest, sweetest apple, forget it.
Life, fortunately, is always the biggest, reddest, sweetest apple problem. Today, in this country, the problem is that USA, Inc. has executives who want a no-brainer solution to everything. To be clear, they do not all have the same apple barrel but different barrels. Some have barrels of oranges. Trumpism is not unilateral. It is a coagulation of different, and sometimes conflicting, no-brainers. But they all think they have an easy, no-brainer solution to everything.
Today’s example of a no-brainer comes from Wired, a news site for computer people. It seems our President has ordered the Stasi-like compilation of all information on each one of us individually. This would mean our financial, medical histories, our legal and illegal activities, and our identities, are not stored, siloed separately, by the IRS, Social Security, the military, the Department of Health and Human Services, by all the various agencies we’ve dealt with — which are many given how much we interact with the government. The Wired article is very reasonable in weighing the advantages against the disadvantages of this order to end “siloing” of data and consolidate all personal information centrally. This President Order has mostly been ignored in the media, so you really might want to read the article. Click on this link: https://www.wired.com/story/plaintext-trump-executive-order-information-silos-privacy/?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=wired&utm_mailing=WIR_Daily_04025&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&utm_content=WIR_Daily_04025&bxid=67e03a9a24c70c4d5303bd44&cndid=88048979&hasha=ab1dfd390962e917aa20dd8fcb264c7f&hashc=0d95d96ea5fb049bddd3116c12f7ce2ad8812f4a3c471afbdd455b0639d09c53&esrc=VERSO_NAVIGATION&utm_term=WIR_Daily_Active.
I just want to add my two cents to a side issue. Centralizing all personal data puts every one of us in jeopardy of continual investigation for a variety of accusations of not conforming to some no-brainer idea of size or redness. It doesn’t matter if you think you are law-abiding or not; the no-brainers are writing the laws; and you may violate new laws you haven’t even heard of. Public agencies are saying that diversity, equity, and inclusion are “illegal” activities (even though they are not, and the Declaration of Independence, which espouses these, has not yet been erased the way Jackie Robinson has). We are all, potentially, breaking bad.
Yes, it’s about surveillance, and when that system is functional, the internet data added, the phone conversations identified, Chainsaw’s DOG-e’s AI algorithms will be able not only to write your biography but to personalize whatever deal the company offers you to get you to volunteer (it’s a free country) to do what it wants you to do. Then, see where screaming about your right not to wear masks or not get vaccinated will get you.
Siloing was not intentional but resulted from the variety of services two centuries of our former government created to engage the multiple needs of a multi-dimensional people. It demonstrates a government trying to deal with the vast variety of life in this very pluralistic society of a nation, dealing with these problems as a complex issue, looking for the biggest, reddest, sweetest apple. Whether right or wrong, the multiplicity of siloed data bases characterizes what government is, a messy attempt to deal with the national reality. That is why we invented governments, to deal with the reality of the nation, and that is why governments have to be messy, constantly re-adjusting, repeatedly controversial, debated, and segmented.
In contrast, USA, Inc. doesn’t even to try to be a government. It believes choices all ought to be no-brainers. What’s the point of collecting information? Why, to make get the upper hand in a deal, to have power, to make money. That’s why siloed data is inefficient. Centralized, the data becomes usable by the company for the company. Remember that we are no longer citizens. We are only customers. Our role is to be swayed by the ads and to buy whatever the company decides to sell us.
We chose this destiny by believing that life was a job (training, career, profession, achievement, promotion, the whole bundle of being a wage slave) and buying things (clothes, tools, toys, cars, a house or two, vacations, etc., etc., and more) and family (bringing up kids to do the same or better) and, of course, sex. We are used to being company people; so, we may find having a company rule us comforting, unless we get fired. And they do like firing people, especially people who still think they are citizens rather than employees.
Gee, maybe you will understand why gun registration is a bad idea….
I guess I don’t understand why it is a bad idea or a good idea or an idea at all. Guns are useless in the modern world of tanks, F-35s, drones, missiles, and rockets. Did you read today that our President is putting a trillion of your dollars into the military budget? Have you followed the Gaza “war” at all? 90% of the residential buildings are gone; 60,000+ people are gone; and that is because Israel has real weapons and Hamas has guns, which have managed to kill 409 Israelis in a year and a half (it’s not a war but a simple slaughter). Every house in this country has a GPS identity which can be simply eliminated with all its unregistered guns and stockpiled foods. As for open spaces, the military learned a hundred years ago that roads and rails control the whole country, which is why there is no place in this very large country which is not within 30 or 40 miles of a road or rail track. We got that by pushing for convenience and development and, of course, money.