Comment by betterunix

12 years ago

I think it is part of a more general problem: people do not spend much time thinking about the importance of any of their rights. Nobody wants to hear that a terrorist attack was successful or that a criminal walked free for the sake of their civil rights -- rights are abstract, terrorists and criminals are threats to our children and whatnot. Look at what people say about free speech rights, how quickly everyone parrots the quote about shouting fire in a crowded theater (most people have never bothered to look into the Schenck case, they just know that one phrase). People have even managed to say that habeas corpus rights are problematic.

Privacy rights are too abstract for most people to bother with. After all, they have nothing to hide, only criminals and terrorists would bother hiding anything (or so the thinking goes).

5 comments

betterunix

Reply
dmix  12 years ago

It is possible our (UK/Canada/USA/etc) societies pursuit of comfort/safety has descended into what Nietzsche calls the "last man".

> the antithesis of the imagined superior being. The last man is tired of life, takes no risks, and seeks only comfort and security.

> Nietzsche said that the society of the last man would be too barren to support the growth of great individuals. The last man is possible only by mankind's having bred an apathetic creature who has no great passion or commitment, who is unable to dream, who merely earns his living and keeps warm. The last men claim to have discovered happiness, but blink every time they say so.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_man

The last man trades their rights and freedoms away for security and comfort.