There is a lot of talk these days about privacy rights. Google, Facebook, your phone records, all are of interest to the FBI and others. Even businesses want the right to mine you private data so as to better be able to market and sell to you to make money.
On the surface, I find it disturbing and I would prefer they mind their own business. But then I think, it is their “business.” The FBI is trying to deter illegal activity. What we determine through the political process as illegal should be our main concern, not the enforcement of those laws by rooting around in our information. Certainly we should guard against the abuse of the information gained by the intrusion into our privacy.
Rats and cockroaches scurry from the light. Integrity is an interesting word. It comes from the root word “integrate.” What it means is that you are consistent. What you say is what you actually do. There is nothing hidden in you. We live in a society that lacks integrity on all levels from our families to the heights of the halls of congress. Perhaps privacy doesn’t do us all that much good.
Lawbreaking, sin or even pure evil is usually the kind of thing we don’t want revealed. It is what we hide in the dark. You know it and I know it. One of the things I found over the years that shows how beneficial the lack of privacy is came from a college professor of mine. He pointed out that the anonymity of big cities favored the development of crime. Studies showed that in small towns when everyone knew everyone else’s business, people we a lot less likely to do something wrong and think they could get away with it.
Perhaps as Matthew, the notorious Tax collector and sinner once wrote, “let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works…” is what we need to focus on doing, rather than hiding everything and guarding our privacy.
What do you think?
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