Would you go crazy without privacy?

It’s peculiar, but I misinterpreted the thrust of this question prior to reading the derails below it. I thought you were asking if I’d leave the tracks if forced to incessantly interact with people without respite while conscious. The answer to that question would be a quick and definitive “yes”. Otherwise, I think I would rapidly adjust to a camera being trained on me. And I believe the vast majority of us would adapt. Once again, consider the people living in London where the announced goal (rapidly approaching achievement) is the closed circuit televised monitoring of every public space excluding ( I presume) restroom stalls.

I think I’d get used to it. Apparently, there are cameras all over the UK. I read a news article that said there’s one CCTV camera for every eleven people. I was just over there and I really didn’t notice them. So, while I would expect to feel monitored and that it would feel like an intrusion, I wasn’t actually conscious of the cameras.

In saying all of that I don’t like or want increased surveillance. I understand there are benefits to having such surveillance, but I think we have to guard against agreeing to big brother watching us too closely. Once we give up our freedoms, they’re gone. We’re not going to get that freedom back.

There is unfortunately no freedom from surveillance once you leave the house, and as with computers and phones, there will soon be a time when it will be impossible to find a screen equipped device in your house without a camera capable of watching you.

The guy being watched upon may be better off than the one doing the watching… Imagine having to spy on some average Joes all the time. What a fucked-up job that would be!

True, but the era is upon us wherein there will surely be hoardes of applicants fighting for a shot at the detestable work.

Hopefully, there will also be a good number of people willing to fight against them, `a la Snowden.

I dunno. Witnessing Snowden’s fate is hardly a spur to idealism.

Indeed… And yet he’s probably better off than Assange or Manning. Poor chaps.

I’d probably have a melt down and demand privacy or find a way to compromise the surveillance.

My main objection is that someone would misuse surveillance for some nefarious purpose.

To answer the question without the details: No, but I would probably not be a very nice person to be around if I didn’t have adequate alone time.

Being monitored has become a way of life in most of the cities in developed countries of the world. The most monitored people are Londoners and Chicagoans. What can they do about it? They’ve been sold the idea that it is for their own safety, so there will never be a referendum against it. So, they adapt. I personally find the whole thing annoying, but what can I do?

I have chosen not to live in places like this for many reasons. I’ve come to believe that I’m much more comfortable living in the late 19th and early 20th century with certain 21st century accouterments such as the internet and a progressive political view. I prefer oil lamps, real fire, for general lighting in the stead of electric lights, but I use electric for local lighting at my desk and other work surfaces. I prefer glow to glare when I walk into a room.

I don’t like being surveilled. So, I live where there are few cameras and little crime. And the Google Earth mobile hasn’t arrived in my neighborhood as yet.

I grew up in a two room house with four other people. The only privacy was in the bathroom, or outside the house, but with the parents going Big Brother on you.

I may or may not be right in the head. I don’t know.

I do know that, if you grow up without something, or with very small amounts of it, you worship that shit. If there is one thing I adore, it’s being left alone. I tend to be highly annoyed by people who even seem like they try to control me or interfere with (in?) my life.

So yeah, I don’t like being monitored.

Except as mentioned above, I have absolutely no issue with anyone watching me, anytime, anywhere. What would be the point?

I like privacy in that I need time to be alone every day and I appreciate someone not listening to my phone calls and read my emails and stuff like that. However, the phone calls and email issue is from people I know. If someone I don’t know wants to hear me talk about how I can’t stand the secretary or wants to read an email about how I got a new fish tank, they can go right ahead.