Comments on: Surveillance society, safe schools http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2007/10/surveillance-so.html Technology, leadership, and the future of schools Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:00:32 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Mike http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2007/10/surveillance-so.html/comment-page-1#comment-14057 Mike Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000 http://annahein.com/2007/10/surveillance-so.html#comment-14057 When we allow government to assume all authority for protecting us, or when we give up our rights to self defense and self determination--expecting the government to make us safe--we should hardly be surprised to find goverment demanding more and more power and expanding more and more into the sphere of personal privacy. While I, for the most part, wait for actual evidence of the horrendous privacy depradations some keep trying to ascribe to the Bush Administration, it is without doubt true that any government will do its best to not only retain but expand its power in any way possible. Not only can the government, through the police, not protect any individual citizen, but government has no legal obligation to do so. We are all ultimately responsible for the personal safety not only of ourselves, but of our families. Expecting government to do it, in the schools or elsewhere, is an illusion that tends to be exposed as such primarily through tragedy. At the same time, we ought to be very careful about knee jerk opposition to reasonable anti-crime measures such as videocameras and other minimally intrusive technologies and practices. As adults, we do have a responsibility to do our best, don't we? When we allow government to assume all authority for protecting us, or when we give up our rights to self defense and self determination–expecting the government to make us safe–we should hardly be surprised to find goverment demanding more and more power and expanding more and more into the sphere of personal privacy. While I, for the most part, wait for actual evidence of the horrendous privacy depradations some keep trying to ascribe to the Bush Administration, it is without doubt true that any government will do its best to not only retain but expand its power in any way possible.

Not only can the government, through the police, not protect any individual citizen, but government has no legal obligation to do so. We are all ultimately responsible for the personal safety not only of ourselves, but of our families. Expecting government to do it, in the schools or elsewhere, is an illusion that tends to be exposed as such primarily through tragedy.

At the same time, we ought to be very careful about knee jerk opposition to reasonable anti-crime measures such as videocameras and other minimally intrusive technologies and practices. As adults, we do have a responsibility to do our best, don’t we?

]]>