Blog 13 Minorty Report Response

Brandon Miller
11/13/10
ENG 101
Blog #13 Minority Report response.



Those who would trade freedom for their protection deserve neither. This quote by Benjamin Franklin speaks volumes. Unfortunately, that volume is not loud enough for the people of the movie Minority Report. For the citizens and the movie have found it completely acceptable to have the government and even business to know where you are, what you are doing, and even have teenagers peer into the future and know what you will do before you yourself know. Granted they have been successful in eliminating all murder in Washington DC for over the last six years but the thought of privacy, and even freewill have now become a myth rather then standered. It may have thought it sounded like a good idea, but as they say, the path to hell is paved with good intentions.
Due to an alarming rise in homicides, and other such crimes, the government has been forced to step in to remedy the situation. With the creation of pre-crime, they have been able to stop the act of a murder before it can be committed. While this sounds like a full prove plan with being able to see in to future and intervene there are problems. One such problem is, what if the the future is wrong, and the killer ended up not killing anyone at all. The government would have arrested someone who was innocent. Another problem would be the people who are allowed to see these futures. Granted they do it to prevent a maraud but what right do they have in doing so? What if the person that was about to be killed was a cereal rapist, or even a mob boss. Granted they are still killing someone but it could have been for the grater good, even if the chances of that are slim. Another problem is that they have no right going in to our business to know these things. When I was a child my sister brought up a good point that I still stick with to this day. One of the worst most offensive super power a person can have is to look into a persons mind and see and look at what they are thinking. The mind and imagination is the last and only real free realm of man left. Even if you live for example in a country where they limit the freedom of speech, and the press can't write what they want, no one can stop you from thinking it and expressing it in their thoughts. You might not be able to kill your boss but you can hit him/her over the head repeatedly with a rusty pipe in your mind. That said, how dare you try to look in to MY future and make the destination on what I will do next. It is MY life and I will do with it as I please. It is different when someone try's to calm some one down when they are angry while it is happening and then they change their mind, that's fine. But when you have the preset knowledge of exactly what I will do and then you take the decision completely out of my hands, that is a serious violation. If anyone should have the knowledge of what is going to happen in the future it should be the people involved and then they should make the decision not pre-crime.
Another such violation is is the constant scanning of a persons eyes. This is to know who goes where, which was probably a first attempt to stop the crime. Instead of having cameras everywhere where you might not see the person who committed the crime, you scan the eyes and know who and where everyone is. To be honest, I don't know which is worse, the fact that the government thought of this and out is in to effect, or the fact that the people have just accepted this and let it be. The government can now have complete accesses to anyone's where at just about any given time. They know when you go the supermarket, to mall, they even know when you go to McDonald to go stuff your face. There are two major problems with this. The first being that the government has absolutely no right to do invade someones privacy like this. Some may argue that with the share amount of people residing in the United States, the government and security agents are probably only focusing on on about sixty percent of Americans. So as long as you are not doing something to noticeable it is fine, right? Wrong. For starts who is in charge of checking this information, it can just go to anyone, it might fall in the wrong hands. Do not be fooled, just because someone is given a title a human is still a human and all the faults that come with it. They can still make mistakes, they can still misuse their power. That being said, can you imagination what someone could do with ALL the information on any given person, passports, social security, birthday and birth place, and now they know where they like to go. Depending on that they can do some serious damage do a person. The other major problem is that if government is willing to do this, and the people just accept it, when does it stop. Will we just accept any thing the government does, Maybe in the future, the government will create a device that even knows when you go to the bathroom and even can tell what how did and measure your...leavings. Or they will install a device that knows what your are thinking, saying, and doing at all times of the day.
Actually,come to think of it, this future is not to far off from what America is like today, In fact it is very, very similar to how we live now. With the creation of the credit/debit and the internet, and anything else electronic, It is so easy to track and find out who you are and what you are doing. When you buy something with a credit/debit card, that information is stored on the website, and is logged down and saved. You can check what you brought at anytime you had it. The government can find out had a whooper jr and large fries at burger King on August forth, 2002, even if you don't remember. And lets not forget the internet, any information you put on it can be found out by the government. Heck the government can check what I posted here on this site, granted I am giving away this info on a free site and anyone can see it. What about Google maps and Google earth You can figure out about where a person lives and what it is like around that area. It is like a Stalkers wet dream come true.
Have we become so lazy as citizens that we just accept anything the government says is 'for our benefit' and not only challenge it, but not even question it? How long are we going to use the excuse that 'They are the government and we can not do any thing about. They should not forget, we appointed them to power meaning we think they can do a good job. We gave them that power and we can take it away if they don't do a good job. Just like our teachers they work for us to get a pay check so we should get everything we ask for in an education, if we need help or need something to change we should confront them on it.