I am not going back on mu promise to never write about politics again, not really. This is more of a social observation. Right now, in America, I am struck by how unsocial people are. Time was, if you crossed paths with a stranger on the street, you exchanged greetings, a hello. maybe a how are you, at least a nod and a grunt. I still do this and of late, not many respond.
Folks seem to be sealed as tight as a champagne bottle and so shaken that the cork may pop at any moment. When it does, you have a mess. If you don't believe that, just watch the news and notice the amount of road rage attacks, domestic violence and random acts of mayhem that seem to have no cause at all.
There is talk, in tech circles that soon there will be devices that can scan your face and tell the police when you are ready to go off. Personally, I don't think that to be true but, I am often wrong (remember, I picked Martin Kaymer to win the Open and Bubba Watson to win the PGA and neither made the cut). If the device is ever made, things will change. Then people will walk around with huge grins, chatting cheerfully, just to keep the thought police off their back. It will be totally phony, but at least it will seem cheery.
The scary part is that many, many people will love the idea. Anything to stop crime will be the motto. Make no mistake, this will be a non partisan issue. There are deep fascists on the left and the right. Control freaks are not bound to ideology.
Any one who thinks that human behavior can and should be controlled in this or any other method, using predictive technology should really, really, really read Phillip K, Dick's story, Minority Report (forget the awful Tom Cruise film version). After that, if you still think such nonsense is a good idea, you better start practicing that smile
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