My school years were an amazing era, the enforcement of personal responsibility in my earliest of years was first upheld by teachers delivering a quick, but public, swatting on the butt when you were misbehaving. In later years your compliance was enforced by threats of negative entries in 'your permanent record'.
The legendary permanent record was advertised as this global report of what a good (or bad) kid you were, perhaps a series of characteristics each with a score (1-10)...we'd really never know. Denial of future job prospects, college admissions,...all lie in the wake of a negative record. As we grew, we later found that no such record existed. Mind blown; all the bad things we did would be left behind when we left school, a blank slate at our new school/company/fellowship.
Who would have thought that the concept of a permanent record would one-day exist, the concept was simply ahead of it's time. Today, it takes the form as a Social Credit System.
The social credit system has privacy advocates up in arms for good reason, as it attempts to apply a grade to individuals based on their trustworthiness. Its financial goal is to better assess whether a person is financially responsible, its social goal...to reward good behavior and punish bad behavior. Personally, I'm torn; while I value privacy, I also observe (and conduct) bad behaviors on a daily basis. Unless you believe in karma or the ever-after, you infrequently see dick-heads get their just desserts. Perhaps a social credit system would serve up justice and an ever-watching judge would reduce bad behaviors. /shrug
Dangerous slope, potential to be misused, and who's to judge...I'm not embracing the idea, but I can see how one could get there.
I struggle with this idea, and am drawn to one of it's heaviest criticisms; the ?right? to personal privacy. But what is privacy? What should be private, and what is public? Where is the line?
For you, personally; have you ever thought about where the line for privacy should be? Is the desire to preserve privacy a defensive action to hide stuff you're embarrassed about or more of an ideal concept. If you privately donated $10,000 to a Red Cross bucket only to later be identified, would you have the same response to being identified as a drunk pedestrian who puked in the same bucket? The line to privacy is likely personal and I'm not sure I myself have a clear line in my head. Perhaps this post will help me reconcile my own privacy boundary.
Let's first look at the motivation for a Social Credit System, or peeking into one's privacy.
Let's say you're set up on a blind date. Do you observe your dates privacy 100%, or do you challenge it somewhat? Given the opportunity, would you ask their friends what they were like? Would you ask their exes how they were treated? Would you want to know if they were a good employee, have held a stable job? Would you want to know if they were financially stable, in good standing with their landlord, have a criminal record? Would you want to know how they treat their servers when out dining? Would you want to know if they had an STD?... Would you want to know any of these things, some of them, or none of them? The world is full of dating advise that suggests knowing these things to avoid a relationship that is doomed to failure. Each inquiry into your date could be considered an invasion of their privacy.
What if you are a parent looking for a day-care provider? Would you want to know if they were a reckless driver, hot-headed, or an anti-vaxer? Would you want to know if they frequently screamed at their own kids, had a criminal record, was an occultist, or their preferred pastime was doing lines in the nightclub stalls? What if they have pedo-tendencies, but have never been charged/convicted?
How about as an employer; would you want to know if your perspective employee has a history of flipping-the-bird to fellow travelers, treats shouting obscenities in an open stadium as their main hobby, is an founding member of the alt-left, alt-right, local nazi party or any other form of extremist?
As a consumer of such privacy info, would you pry? Or, perhaps you are in the fleeting minority of believing that people are inherently good. The consequences are mostly yours to bear; it'll be you that needs to pry a blind-date deadbeat from your memory and potentially off your couch. It'll be you that will deal with any consequences of leaving your kid with a psycho. And, it'll be you that needs to publicly apologize for an employee that brings Internet-worthy shame to your business. Most people I know would dig at least a little beforehand _if_ the information was readily available.
But where is the line separating private from public? As an individual, where would you draw the privacy line? What is private, what is public....if you, and you alone could define the boundary? Forget current conventions, forget legal definitions,...forget it all for now, with a clean slate....where would you draw the line?
- A drunken melt-down on a commercial airline -- private/public?
- Public participation in an extremist rally (alt-left, alt-right, nazi, KKK...) -- private/public?
- Privately tutoring underprivileged kids in STEM -- private/public?
- Aggressively driving while flipping the bird to other drivers -- private/public?
- Volunteering to foster abandoned pets -- private/public?
- Sharing your personal opinion on a topic on the Internet while using your real name-- private/public?
- Sharing opinions (perhaps hostile) on the Internet while using an anonymous name -- private/public?
- Beating your mate/kids behind closed doors while avoiding criminal charges -- private/public?
- Obsessing with executing physical harm on others -- private/public?
- Private participation in an extremist group -- private/public?
- Personal nude selfies -- private/public?
- .... (I will avoid going darker)
If you're like me, you want to define clear boundaries. Some distinctions are easier, others are extremely hard. Equally, if you're like me, you'll find it nearly difficult to do so. We criticize public figures and the legal profession for drawing these boundaries, perhaps we even trust their judgement. More than likely though, we will simply ignore it....put it in the box of way too hard problems to solve along with countless math problems from the past, never to be returned to.
So, I continue to be torn on the topic. I continue to wish dick-ish people would be punished for dick-ish behavior and good people are rewarded. I don't want people prying into my personal life, yet understand the motivations for doing so. I want to define an line that distinguishes between private/public but it continues to elude me.
I only wish that your journey to do so is found to be easier. Good luck!
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