I'm typing these words to you on my non-updated, never compliant, unchanged for Y2K three year old PC, and guess what? I haven't had a single Y2k problem, glitch, lost file, or anything else so far. Gee, do you think it was all hype? Some estimate that over 100 billion dollars were spent on preventative measures for the Y2k bug, and all I can say is: good work folks. Hats off to the capitalists who made fortunes during this last craze, and to those who did prevent any actual problems.
Watching the New York Times Square celebration brought home to me most of the great stuff about America. One and a half million people peacefully gathered to ring in the most overhyped event of the past 1000 years, next to Star Wars Phantom Menace. Of course it will remain to be seen what possible future Y2K problems may crop up in the next few months, but I'm thinking they will be few and relatively small if any. In the meantime, some things are kicking around my mind as we go into the next century.
Quietly, slowly, steadily and surely, Big Bro is happily assimilating us as we go about our daily lives, often without us knowing a thing about it. Yeah, it sure is convenient to use the grocery store discount cards..tons of specials, low prices to keep up with, and new offers every week keep most Americans popping out the grocery store card to save that 1-5% on their grocery bill every time they go to the market. I'm not one of those people though. I shop mostly at Von's, a local LA CA chain, and I sure get a lot of funny looks when I refuse to whip out my Von's card for purchase of my items.
More than one eyebrow goes up when I explain to the clerk that I'm not thrilled with the idea of Von's selling my list of items and personal preferences to the endless stream of marketing companies gathering personal data on all of us for future use. By this time, some of the folks in the line are starting to get nervous. They aren't quite sure why, but by now, all they want is for me to go away.
I remember AOL having to give its members a refund a couple of years ago when David Cassel blew the whistle on them for selling their members personal information out to third parties for marketing use without the member's knowledge or consent. Yeah, you gotta love that TOS agreement. I quit AOL within days of finding that out, didn't even stick around to collect my one free hour of connect time.
The State of California has recently introduced legislation to make all of its residents' medical records available to DMV now, and they are giving citizens personal doctors the right to add any information they might feel "necessary" to the DMV database under the pretext of needing to know what medical conditions might possibly impair someone's ability to drive. Can't wait for the HIV and Herpes victims to be standing in line for their new driver's license picture while the DMV employees they know and love pour over the contents and reasons for their doctors visits over the past few years. I'm sure rape victims will feel quite at ease as well knowing that total strangers at the DMV know all about their personal histories. Ahem.
Ok, here's the last example: hear about this lovely thing for your car to keep you safe called' "On Star"? The TV commercial shows a family happily cruising the desert in their SUV when they suddenly get a flat tire, and press the lovely button built right into the dashboard to summon help. Thank God they are being tracked via sattelite on a global tracking system which knows their exact location everywhere they drive 24 hours a day. I'm waiting for the news story of the couple who'll press the button accidently while parked offroad for some in-car fun, and gets arrested for indecent exposure when the "helpers" show up.
Sure many of these news things are supposed to help and protect
us, but is it really anyones' business
that a particular person eats brand x cereal, is using y creams,
drinks z alcoholic beverage,
has been treated for disease a, and is now located in parking lot
b? I think not. Yep, in the name
of our safety, and through our basic daily activities, we are now
part of the ever-growing big computer
in the sky called Big Bro, and he's not going anywhere. But, He'll
know when and where we do.
continued on next page
[back to
planetmullins homepage