SMILE! :.
( Thursday, July 27, 2006 )
No later than he spots me, his hand goes up in a salute. This gesture is suppossed to be hint to shell out some money. Probably I would have given up a part of my wealth if it wasn't that I go there everyday. But since I do, the only option I’m left with is to avoid eye contact and hence forgot the smile that I would have otherwise thrown at such a bored soul.
Whenever I pass someone I know, I smile at them…or at least intend to do so.
But this isn’t always easy. First I have to ensure that s/he is looking at me. Then comes the big dilemma: is s/he going to smile at me? What if I smile, but then fail to get any response? On the other hand, what if s/he smiles and I fail to respond?There is a very thin line to tread here — both of the situations can be terribly embarrasing, and in both you became involved.Most people, I think, decide to let the other person be the first mover. “I can just respond back,” they say to themselves.
Since the majority end up thinking this way, these social exchanges become what in my country we call “arse face”.
But we have to remember that we live in a epoch that makes Orwell's book Nineteen Eighty-Four look quaint. Probably if you dont smile, and cheer, you will be looking akward for the camera. It's well known (for anyone who wants to see it)that a global infrastructure of registration and surveillance is emerging through the efforts of groups such as the EU, G8 and ICAO.
These kinds of strategy add up to a bigger picture where the aim is to ensure that we all live inside a 24hs "Reality Show" in which all travel is tracked globally, all electronic communications and transactions can be easily watched, and that all the information collected about individuals in public or private-sector databases is stored, linked, and made available to state agents.
If this is somehow true... there should be profane eyes watching this text. Please, if you belong to any kind of Agency, (From the C.I.A, F.B.I, O.T.O, to a gay-goth-forum) feel free to stay around.
"If you want to reclaim your 15 minutes of fame, now you can use the anti-terror and security measures being used to roll back freedom, increase powers and exercise increasing control over individuals and populations. CALL NOW!!"
The price, however, will be a massive loss of freedom criven by a whole new set of predictive 'threat models', risk profiling and the generation of more information than can possibly be usefully analysed.
The good news, for us, the invisible vandals, is that if you try to watch everyone you are actually watching no-one.
A lot of things can be said about me, even that I'm a meneace to civilization, but at least im not a two faced prick with a fake smile for the camera. (GOT IT fat boy?)
This bullshit only diverts crucial resources away from the kind of investments in human intelligence. We need to give us good ideas about specific threats, rather than useless information on the nearly 100 percent of the population that poses non threat whatsoever.