Another Something to Think About
What do privacy and democracy have in common?
Neither are mentioned in either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution.
In striking down Roe v Wade the Supreme Court indicated that the Constitution does not guarantee or protect a right of privacy because there is no mention or articulation of the concept of privacy in the Constitution hence, no such right exists.
The Constitution established a Federal democratic republic. It is the system of the Federal Government; it is democratic because the people govern themselves; and it is a republic because the Government’s power is derived from its people.
The word “democracy” was neither used in the Declaration of Independence nor in the Constitution. Indeed, the Founding Fathers were anxious and fearful of allowing any form of tyranny, including the tyranny of the majority.
Clarence Thomas indicated that other rights may be targeted and tossed by the Court as invalid liberal or progressive overreach by the Court in earlier decisions which seemed to reflect evolutionary changes in societal attitudes and perspectives…
Was Thomas hinting that democracy itself may be placed on the Court’s draconian chopping block because nowhere is the word “democracy” mentioned in the Declaration of Independence or the U.S. Constitution?
07/25/2022 @ 6:32 am
In my view, to the extent that I I understand it, the common thread is agency. With agency being the state of action, agency can either be in the service of another entity, or oneself. Democracy, being the expression of volition on issues before the public, privacy is required as the laboratory or the factory of volition. Without privacy, no volition can be constructed, and the agency is subsumed by the closest stream of momentum to the individual concerned.
07/25/2022 @ 9:07 am
Bitey, you posit an interesting thought/theory:
Democracy is privacy in action.
The political manifestation of privacy is democracy.
The foundation of democracy as the construct or paradigm of societal and collective self governance is individual privacy.
In a democracy, “All politics is local”.
Voting is personal.
07/25/2022 @ 2:17 pm
Yes. Freedom is democracy fueled by the agency of the free citizen. Without the self granted license to conceive a position, and then move on it in a public forum, the individual citizen is reduced to a subject of some greater authority who does possess the ability to determine the positions and the movements.
I assume privacy was not addressed because it is assumed. Another condition that is assumed is consciousness. While it is not addressed, no agency within a system of freedom can be maintained or realized without consciousness. The mere fact that it is not expressed does not that it is not fundamental. Privacy is fundamental in this particular way…in my view.
07/26/2022 @ 10:05 am
I read a book more than a decade ago, that provides a chilling look at our assumptions. Entitled “The Right to Privacy” by Caroline Kennedy and Ellen Alderman, it answers as many questions as it generates.
The increase in technological options to enable searching and finding details about people, has created an overlay of perception that if one wants to know about other’s lives in a manner that would have historically been assumed to be illegal, is likely not so.
That perception has led to countless intrusions into our lives including bloggers using psuedonyms rather than taking credit or blame for their comments.
07/26/2022 @ 11:29 am
I remember buying my wife an iPod Touch as a present, before she considered that she might want one. This was the handheld internet device by Apple the year before they put a phone in them. The salesman (kid) at the Apple store had one, and I asked him if he found having access to the internet in his pocket useful. I ended up getting it, and soon we had iPhones when they came out. Now, I can’t imagine life without one. We have handed over a crazy amount of data to the cloud, which as you mentioned, guarantees us no privacy. Orwell’s “1984” seemed all very theoretical and academic until Facebook made it all so real with big data. You’re so right, AWS.
07/26/2022 @ 1:52 pm
“We have handed over a crazy amount of data to the cloud, which as you mentioned, guarantees us no privacy.”
It might be argued that the internet is, at least in part, a cause for creeping authoritarianism and a reason for the demise of the democratic impulse.
“The foundation of democracy as the construct or paradigm of societal and collective self governance is individual privacy.”
If this is true, then the following nay also be true:
No privacy = no democracy…
07/26/2022 @ 3:31 pm
I think that is right, Ron. And to state it optimistically; if we can look forward to some great genius who writes us or teaches us into a more civilized future, that person’s priorities will be climate, wealth disparities, and privacy in just the way that you described.
07/27/2022 @ 12:29 am
Excellent choice of three things
07/31/2022 @ 6:19 pm
‘…three things…’ and four strong winds … the only things I know that run on air are windmills. Wait! Sails, painted kites, bagpipes, woodwinds, brass … ok: hot air balloons … whistles … yeah sure parachutes!
08/01/2022 @ 8:15 am
jph;
“The answer is is blowing in the wind…”
Bob Dylan said it first:
AND
Peter, Paul, and Mary said it best:
08/05/2022 @ 2:13 am
… breaker~~~BREAKER ONE NINE~~~ you can Roger Moore DAT!