WASHINGTON, D.C. — We've been hearing a lot lately about privacy, what with the fires still smoldering from the latest administration scandal, ignited by the revelation of NSA's eavesdropping policy (official or otherwise).
And keep in mind this is a War on Terror holdover from the Bush years and a critical plot point of the second (and best) Nolan Batman film. But I digress …
We should dismantle this program immediately and scale back all our federal surveillance to legal, ethical pre-9/11 levels. (If they ever existed: I'm sure Dr. Martin Luther King's family might have something to say about that, among many others.)
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Of course, after the next terror attack, the monsoon of damning bipartisan wrath would rain down on the administration so fast and hard it would make the current storm look like a puddle splash. In typical American fashion, we want our privacy left alone, our lives adequately sheltered and our freedom untouched.
But real life doesn't play so nice. If you want that security blanket tucked around you tight, you're not going to be able to move around so much. Besides, you're gonna have to let someone in to turn off the light.
Colorful — and sleepy — analogies aside, we can't have it all. Remember when air travel didn't involve stripping down at the airport?
Well, this is the part where I slyly point out a couple of comparisons that might hit much closer to home, albeit much less dramatically.
Retirement planning, for starters, involves an equally intricate balancing act of risk vs. reward, freedom vs. security. Do you gamble for the big win in the stock market and expose yourself to the possibility of someday dying at your desk? Or do you play it safe with bonds, guarantee yourself an actual retirement and condemn yourself to diet of ramen noodles and Nestlé Quik?
There's also the nascent concept of flextime, addressed most recently by the New York Times in a piece just last week. Apparently, despite the raging popularity of flextime, which covers telecommuting, flexible hours and what loafer-shuffling professors call sabbaticals, such workplace freedom doesn't without it's own share of risk, as well.
Both men and women alike face what might very well be called workplace discrimination for actually taking advantage of their employer's flextime options. Women who take an extended maternity might find themselves stalled out on their career path in the form of overlooked promotions smaller pay raises. Meanwhile, men might face ridicule for even taking a week or two ( "It's not like you did anything," I heard once years after the birth of my son.)
Flextime is the pinnacle of workplace freedom, but apparently even that carries its own risk of job security, no matter how unfair that might seem. And you can always just stay chained to your cubicle, putting in the requisite face time and staying on the fast track. I think you see where I'm going with this.
You'll have to forgive the rhetoric this week, but I am at a trade show. In D.C., no less. I guess the dirt rubs off fast.
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