OR: Is this the Way You Want Government to Operate?
(I wrote an article "There Ought to Be a Law" to express the opinion that I felt that maybe our society should pull back a bit on making sports such a central feature of our kids life and provide a level playing field for maybe (if their parents chose) getting them involved in Sunday Schools by making Sunday mornings sports free. Many respondents (and I appreciate all views, even those 180 degrees opposed to mine) expressed outrage about interference into their lives by doing something like this. This article is, in a way, why those who think that government isn't already "guiding" their lives should reconsider.)
Citizens in an open society (like the United States) prize the concept of freedom almost above any other. There is freedom of speech, press and religion, a right to bear arms, to not have to testify against yourself. There is freedom of movement around the country and changing jobs is not against the law. You are not conscripted into the armed forces and if you want to protest, so be it. But that doesn't mean that government is not guiding society or that you are free as much as tolerated for behavior government decides is in your best interest.
When you are born in this country you quickly (if your parents want to use you as a tax deduction) will receive a social security number and a place in the government records that identifies you until the day you die. The government has records on you if it wants to look at them from height and weight to educational qualifications to marital status. Your fingerprints may or may not be available if you get into trouble with the law, try to buy a firearm or even apply to become a stock broker. You are tracked, computed for probability that you will die at a certain age and even classified as to probability of how.
Government can track your internet usage and indeed, what you up and download. If you frequent pornographic sites, the government can tell, and if you download images, it will know that. Recently a doctor in Rochester, New York found this out when he was arrested and convicted of having child pornography on his home computer. He will have between 24 and 36 months to think about how private his private life was.
The government encourages education through tax breaks, use of military service (veterans receive educational aid), student loans subsidized by government agencies and provides schools with money and "guidelines". A state test for math or social studies is a guideline for what you are to know. Considering it a qualification for having "learned the fundamentals of any course" is plain fantasy. You learned what the government wanted you to know.
The government encourages savings and home ownership. Tax breaks, loan incentive programs and many government agencies spend billions of dollars so that home ownership is high and savings are done. You are even taxed into a savings program called social security so that you won't be destitute in your old age. Even there, the government constantly evaluates the situation for every group of citizens, young and old so that society can be guided.
The government guides what you see in the media. It looks at content, presentation and suitability. Ratings systems for movies define how old you must be to watch a certain movie and sensors can act unilaterally to stop you from seeing what they think is "inappropriate" anyway they so desire.
There is no doubt that this article could continue for the next several days with ways that our society is guided, prodded, and rewarded for "the good behavior" and punished for "the bad behavior" by government but it should seem obvious at this point that your belief in freedom is really based on what you perceive as "non-interference" in your daily lifestyle. But even that is an illusion. You travel on roads owned, maintained and regulated by the government. Speed limits are not the numbers posted on signs, they are what you the driver think you won't be arrested for. If you think you can go through the red light with impunity, many will do so. You go to work and many of you work under rules established by a government agency. OSHA, SEC, FDA, and many others guide and control how, where and when you do your work.
You see, non-interference means freedom to most people. They understand they are "guided" in what they do and see, but that is ok. We accept the concept that government acts in our "own best interest." Laws that act on our behalf are passed to ensure social viewpoints that we might question but feel powerless to change. So we have laws like the minimum wage which artificially force business owners to pay us what the government sees fit. We must wear proper clothing or protective gear on the job because the government sees fit. We must not work any more than the government sees fit.
Get the picture?
You see, government guides and controls society and this country is no different than any other. The guidance is different because those guiding have different viewpoints. This country prizes the illusion of non-interference so the government accomodates the illusion.
But don't lose sight of the truth. You are being watched. You will continue to be watched in the future.
Sorry if this caused you any pain, watchers.