SECRET THOUGHTS

I was listening to an interesting interview earlier while driving back from visiting family in another city. It was on NPRI, National Public Radio International.  It was originating in Canada because, I suppose, it being a holiday (Labor Day) in the USA, the out of country divisions were providing the on-air presence.  This was about the ever more deeply encroaching surveillance being foisted on the people of the USA. I don't remember the names of the main interlocutors but one question, among many provocative ones struck me. It was, "What do you say to those who postulate, "If you have nothing to hide, there is nothing to fear.'?"
The answer from the expert being interviewed was swift and sure: "Everyone has something to hide."
My internal, personal reaction was, "I do."
I haven't murdered anyone, raped anyone, robbed any banks or some such things, but if the snoops want something, they can find it in my public life.  It doesn't even matter whether or not it is morally correct.  Snoops can make up all kinds of stories once they have enough information about you.  Since I have confessed that I have something to hide, let me show you where a serious snoop could start, even before I even had a presence on the Internet and a Smart Phone.
I never attended a public school.  I never spoke less than two languages.  I was never drafted into the military.  I was exempted by the nature of my continuing education.  During the time when I could have been drafted, my continuing education took me to Europe.  To Italy where the Communist party was still very strong.  When my continuing education was finished I went to "work" in the Philippines where I stayed for 11 years.  During my time there I lived in the section where the anti Marcos insurgency was fairly strong.  A colleague of mine spent five years in prison for rebelling against the government.
I came back to the United States and when I went to work in secular industry, I did not work for a purely American corporation for many years.
I could go on and on. Now, some nasty snoop could, I suppose, make hay by the fact that I have a fairly constant presence on the Internet and have voluminous writings open and available to the world to ruminate.  It should be clear to you by now, that over these 50+ years of of non-typical existence, there's gotta be something that I should worry about.  Maybe there is, but at 76 years young, I don't give a damn.  But you do get my point, I am sure.
It is the same point that the expert made during the interview.  We have all been to the doctor, many of us have consulted lawyers, or worked for a corporation where our responsibilities put us in positions of having to work with lawyers on a fairly regular basis. Many of us have worked overseas, many of us have picketed our employer's facilities, many of us camp outside of abortion clinics and pray and intervene with the entry of prospective patients, many of us send emails that are not kind to the leaders of the government, and the beat goes on.  The man was making the point that it is not just public speech that is being watched, it is our private expression of personal opinion that is also being monitored. In the end, therefore, says the man, we all have something to hide, we often times don't know what it is.
Over all, I was fascinated by the fellow's point of view.  It was all the more interesting because he is the owner of a company that makes products that prevent the government from snooping on the exchange of messages between two people by using these products. The product has the name "Silent..." I can't remember the whole thing.  I do remember that it is expensive, of course!
So, there you are.  A little sample of the stuff that you can hear while your spouse is sleeping in the passenger's seat on the way home from a holiday in sunny San Diego.