“You bought it. You eat it. It wasn’t met with much resistance. The revolt wouldn’t come until much, much later… after the damage had already been done.”
– Lydia Lunch and Clint Ruin, Meltdown Oratio (1987)

I was apprehensive about my recent flight to New York. Not because I was afraid of being blown to smithereens by some terrorist, but because I was worried about the backscatter machines. I was actually more fearful of opting out, which is what I planned to do from the moment the machines were introduced. Will my name go on some list somewhere? I wonder if it did. The risk assessment balances the radiation exposure against other means of radiation exposure. This line stands out to me: “[These statistics] rely on the correct installation, operation and maintenance of the unit. Significantly higher doses may occur if these criteria are not satisfied.” Do you trust your TSA agent to know how to properly operate one of these and to know when something’s gone wrong, then take the appropriate steps to ensure your well being?

There is no evidence to suggest that any of the additional security screening measures travelers are now forced to endure do anything to ensure our safety. My bags are rifled through, and I can choose between what amounts to a nude photo of myself, or a rather intimate “pat down” (that’s a lot more like a rub down) from a complete stranger. Slow and sure erosion of our civil liberties and our right to privacy… it all goes down smoother with a spoonful of fear.

It seems that your right to privacy doesn’t exist when you’re trying to get from point A to point B. On that note, what happened to anonymous passage within your own country?

There are 2,308 surveillance cameras trained on public space in the streets of Manhattan.

Your Metrocard, New Yorkers, and its west coast counterpart, the Clipper card, when purchased with a credit or debit card, are associated with your identity in a database. Every use of that card records your location, the date and time. We sacrifice privacy for convenience.

Next up, we’re likely to be saddled with a National ID Card. What could go wrong? Plenty – have you ever lost your wallet? Had your identity stolen? Just imagine if your right to be in this country hinged upon a flimsy piece of plastic, and the most personal details of your life were stored in a central database behind some quite probably flimsy security hacked together by a disgruntled, underpaid government employee.

This all reads like some Philip K. Dick nightmare. I wanna wake up.