Pat! Riot! Act!

The idea of surveillance in association with cinema reminds me of Rear Window. When the naked eye wasn’t enough to keep Jeff up to speed on his surveillance, he brought out new technology: the telephoto lens of justice. And when that couldn’t provide enough, they sent in the spies. It is that compromise of privacy in order to catch criminals. Although justice was served, I really doubt Jeff’s Rear Window ethics. We wonder why Jeff thinks its okay to look into people’s windows, but his actions are justified when he indirectly witnesses a murder, or even when he attempts to save Ms. Lonelyhearts. Once surveillance thwarts danger, we can’t touch it. It becomes something that saves us and we certainly should not be ungrateful to that.

[Disclaimer: I am going to sound like a neocon... don’t judge me]
This leads me to reflect on my most recent travel experience: spending the past year in Israel, a country where security measures are far more prevalent, visible, and arguably more necessary than in the United States. But without the metal detectors in every entrance of train and bus station, the multiple step scanning process in the airport, border patrol checkpoints, the country would not be as safe. Israel is a country that has a long history with terrorism and thus is a superstar in the security and intelligence field. Maybe that is why I felt more inclined to cooperate and put up with security on our way to and from Israel than say, if I were traveling to Canada (who wants to blow up Canada?). That is why I was willing to put up with the hassle of getting my bags X-rayed whenever I want to take an intercity bus in Tel Aviv and give up some of my right to privacy whenever I wanted to take a train from Akko. I probably would have put up with x-rated x-rays and interrogation, because I know that Israel needs to assure that I don’t get blown up and that I don’t plan on blowing anybody up. Israel has always been a country where national defense and national security, as Parks discusses, are one and the same. In America, an armed guard on every bus would not fly, but is a common thing in Israeli cities. This probably stems from the fact that it is not as threatening to Israeli citizens because they all have or will serve in the IDF.
Then the question is why do I feel okay about this and not about having my wires tapped, not even in Israel (although I know that the Israeli government probably has better things to exert their energy on than my phone) It is the consent. I control what I put in my bags and I know ahead of time that they will be x-rayed. In relation to the Patriot Act, wiretapping, and tracking every time I use the word bomb on the Internet (whoops!), on principle I think it is a violation of my privacy. A line is crossed when the surveillance intrudes upon the private, to be Kennanesque, into a space that someone assumes is safe, like into the home, private phone conversations, internet history, even public bathrooms and fitting rooms. It is scary when people cannot even rely on these spaces to be secure.