Carl Abrahamsson: If you've got nothing to hide, hide it well?

Have you given some thought to your own freedom lately? Freedom is certainly not a given, nor is it a "right" that is handed out by some altruistic force larger than life. Freedom is kept up by free people, often at a cost. But as we all know, consciously or not, freedom is the most valuable thing there is. So of course it's worth it.

With that in mind, perhaps it's relevant to ask yourself why are there morons who can only find compensatory safety in sheepishly repeating what some "think tank" has decided to be the control catch phrase of the season? "If you've got nothing to hide, then why are you so opposed to monitoring / surveillance / bugging / increased control?" There's a logical inconsistency in this, isn't there? If I don't say anything, does that inherently imply that I mean No when someone else claims Yes? Of course not. A potential dialogue has been dragged down to the level of Kindergarten coercion.

If you've got nothing to hide, it's nobody's business but your own. Your essential worth as a member of society is not decided in terms of obedient "transparency" or immediate binary response but rather of what you choose to contribute when you so desire. Keep that in mind.

Transparency brain washing also removes the focus from where it should be: Criminals should be punished by removing their freedom. They have no longer earned their freedom. That makes Draconian sense. Free and law abiding individuals should not be punished by being intimidated into obedience through sheepish double-speak mind fucks.

Companies and organizations are entitled to have as many secrets as they want. If that wasn't a part of bedrock business policies, competing companies would steal their ideas and inventions. The same goes for nations. The same goes for journalists who protect their sources. Sharing secrets enables trust. Violently disclosing others' secrets enables distrust. Disclosing national secrets is usually called treason and is often severely punished. Why then should individuals have to loosen integrity slack without a very good reason? Demands of decreased individual integrity for the sake of some vague, undefined "greater good" is an abomination that will make our civilization go hollow and, yes of course, totally "transparent".

I'm not referring to the cliché of waiting in security lines at airports. That is not a problem at all. I'm referring to the critical point when an engineered slogan becomes mindlessly integrated in a monotonous and banal jargon of everyday life. When double-speak concepts come to life through vulgar repetition.

Please memorize the following... The person who expresses this programmed phrase – "If you've got nothing to hide, then why are you so opposed to monitoring / surveillance / bugging / increased control?" or any variant or derivative – is the person who indeed has something to hide: the fact that he or she is no longer an individual who is willing to take responsibility for his or her own freedom. And, who knows, more things might lie hidden beneath the surface too.

Be forewarned: as soon as you hear that slogan, you know ill will is present. Ill will, or just mere stupidity. Or, even worse, a combination. The reply needs to be swift and merciless: "Mind your own business!" Also works as "Mind: your own business!"