I really don't think our civil freedoms are really all that threatened. To begin with, many of our freedoms are there in the first place to make it easier to carry out illegal (but not necessarily violent) criminal activities, such as tax evasion or violating regulations. Illegal searches and seizures, protection for our papers, etc, are claimed by drug dealers and gangsters, but they are primarily designed to protect "nice folks" from state interference with their clandestine commercial activities. The Rovians don't care what we do behind our closed doors, it's THEIR doors they really care about keeping tightly shuttered.

Contrary to popular belief, the right wing is not interested in what we do on our own time and property. What they are very interested in is information about them that can cost them money if others gain access to it, and information about us they can use to make money from us if they gain access to it. It's not the jackbooted storm trooper battering down my door in the middle of the night I fear, it's going to get health insurance and being denied because they know more about my blood chemistry and genetic makeup than I do. But they guard their secrets very carefully, don't they, behind a fog of lawyers and accountants.

For example, consider the issue of identity theft. The use of an electronic identity saves the marketeers billions in administering sales, and makes them further billions by making consumption easier, almost inevitable. We accept this because it is convenient for us, and the mom and pop merchant has to accept it because he can't compete without it, in spite of the expense and inconvenience for him. Big business certainly has nothing to gain by stealing our identities. But criminals do.

Is identity theft a real problem? Of course not. We got along for thousands of years using analogue accounting and marketing methods which made fraud much more difficult. By simply abandoning our computerized telephony marketing we could easily put the ID thieves out of business overnight. The reason we don't is because it is a big money-maker for the marketeers. They want us to use credit cards and internet sales and our SS# for private business purposes (remember when that was expressly forbidden by statute?). And we have little choice but to continue playing the game their way.

In fact, it is getting harder and harder to conduct legitimate business any more without making ourselves vulnerable to the electronic web and its hazards and pirates. Our currency has "Legal tender for all debts public and private" printed on it, but you know that's a lie. You can't rent a car or get a hotel room or open a bank account without either a credit card or SS# (for the latter), no matter how much cash you have in your wallet. And you are constantly being pressured by both incentive and penalty to pay your bills online or by direct withdrawal. Why? Because it is convenient and profitable for THEM, not for you.

This is the loss of freedom I fear, not the sort of invasion of privacy by the redcoats our ancestors obsessed about; it is the complete and total immersion in a marketing system that is constantly monitored and analyzed so as to maximize the ability to sell to me and collect from me, all subsidized, ultimately, at my expense, and crammed down my throat as a modern convenience. And these examples are just the tip of the iceberg, as you know, every single action of our economic life, either earning or spending, as well as saving and investing, is organized in such a way that it can be monitored and documented and exploited, by both governmental and corporate authorities for their own convenience and profit. They say it's more efficient and saves me money. My ass.

I know, no one puts a gun to my head and makes me play, but let's face it, it's rapidly becoming the only game in town.