Understanding the Insecurity State and What You Can Do About It (Featuring new author @curving)

I was going to name the title of this essay, 'All Of Your Database Are Belong To Us', after a popular internet meme, but I wasn't sure how many would get the reference.

An experience that occurred this morning was enough to raise a faint but palpable ire in me. The reaction was akin to that of a dyspepsia triggered by the consumption of some disagreeable food, yet the incident I am about to describe was not foodborne in nature, but rather of the sort that I have no doubt is highly allergic to my spirit. That is not to say I judge the incident itself harshly, as such experiences tend to be instructive.

Weeks ago I received a mailer promoting a special offer for gym membership at Planet Fitness, which I imagine to be one of the largest fitness center chains in North America. Said the flier: $1 down, $10 per month, no commitment. No doubt an incredible offer, at least viewed from a monetary perspective, and having been some time since I last belonged to a gym, the offer beckoned.

Now, if you are a member of this particular gym or one like it, do not be offended by what I say next, as some of what I will say simply stems from my own personal predilections, which you may not share. Furthermore, I applaud anyone who belongs to such a place for purposes of taking charge of their health and committing to regular exercise for self-betterment. In any case, it is not the surface details but really the 'straw that broke the camels back' for me, that I wish to emphasize.

Arriving at a half past ten this morning, I made my way through the parking lot, and entered the building. The young woman at the front desk seemed pleasant enough in her introduction and asked that I wait aside while she assisted one of the club members. At which point I began to observe my surroundings.

The first thing I noticed were large flat-screen televisions mounted wall to wall. Perhaps this is to be expected. I understand if people desire something to pass the time while powering along on a cardio machine. As for myself, I yearn not to be surrounded by digital media at every turn. Perhaps it is because a better portion of my work is done in front of a screen, that while I'm giving my muscles a workout I'm simultaneously looking to give my mind a rest. Although to be fair I can admit that if those boxes were to beam nature documentaries at me I might not be so quick to object. Still, I cannot count the number of times on both hands that I've sat on some stool somewhere imbibing a beer and have had the passing thought, “My kingdom for a bar without a television.”Generally I find television an unwelcome distraction anywhere except in those places where I have specifically sought it out, namely at home or in the theater.

This however was merely peripheral as far as the extent of my observations and not near the main cause of my dissatisfaction, which I am coming to presently. As I looked on, I noticed a lot of coming and going, as the bustle of a busy hotel lobby, and that upon entering members would proceed to swipe a magnetic pass card of some kind before continuing on into the gym. After waiting for some time I asked politely whether I could have a walk around and peruse the facilities on my own. I was informed this was not allowed.

Finally, a manager approached from behind the desk, a none too comely woman I must say, and began interacting with me. We exchanged a few words at which she asked whether I had identification. I did, and so I offered it to her not seeing the harm in it. She took my license, rested it on the keyboard in front of her and began tapping away.
I'm sorry, I paused, “Are you entering my information into a database right now?”

“Yes, I am” she replied flatly.

“No thank you”, I returned, and then followed with, “I'll pass. It's not worth it.”

She handed back my license without so much as a question and out the door I walked, having confirmed my earliest suspicions as to the character of the place. If such a business were to count me as one of its paying customers and thereby entrust me with the use of its facilities and equipment, then I can understand wanting to maintain some record of my existence. However, any business that deems it necessary to acquire and store such a record merely in order to set foot on its grounds (and not unaccompanied mind you), is in my eyes not worthy of my money in the first place, no matter what the bargain. No, not even 'because terrorism'.

I suspect that my views on this subject are at odds with others in society. On one hand, this sort of activity has to a certain extent become normalized, and there are those that will either look upon it as benign in its effect, or dare I say even beneficent to the safety and functioning of the so-called free world.

As for myself, I view the drive toward incessant cataloging and numbering of every living thing as something of an 'abomination that causes desolation'. Those that are bent on naming and numbering humanity are so because to number is to order, and the ability to order is the ability to re-order, and manipulate.

When I work with my hands I manipulate tools, true enough. Yet what is a tool in that sense but merely the extension of my will? Were I to seek to manipulate masses of men, or even a single man, that would be no less to make a tool out of human beings toward some end that can only be inglorious.
To number is to define, and to define is to ascribe limitations; boundaries. I do not desire to limit others, nor to bind them.

The maths and sciences have their place. Reason and logic have their place. But it is not logical nor rational to seek to reduce all of life to calculations and equations; to categories and combinations; to symbols and representations; and to abstractions.

A defining hallmark of rationality, and I am tempted to say even the very height of it, is for the rational mind to begin to question itself and its own processes. And so too should we come to question whether such numbering and ordering of society as is now manifest through the copious databasing of our every interaction actually serves our best interests and meets our real needs, or whether the spirit behind such practices does not in some way betray us.
Human virtues beget themselves. You have heard that violence begets violence. Is it no less true that love begets love? If you understand this, then you understand that fear can never beget love. So for that matter, can acting out of insecurity ever beget a state of security? For every problem we look to its opposite, thinking that the answer is to be found there, when it is not.

It is no less true for individuals as for society at large, that those aspects of life which we are unwilling to accept and attempt instead to reject, ultimately turn us into subjects of the selfsame influence, regardless of how mightily or valiantly we seek to suppress and struggle against them. Real valiance exists in confronting the fact that we continue to cut ourselves off from our own humanity and recognizing that there is no savior or white knight that is going to heal our collective conflicts by imposing order from without. Genuine order can only come from within. To go about ordering life from without may provide for a certain illusion of security, but no more so than a shepherd orders his sheep, at one moment to protect them from wolves, while at the next standing at the ready with bucket and sheers.
The effort to utilize technology to track and control 'human variables', to geolocate everything under the sun, to reduce the lives of individuals to a series of data points, and so on, is ultimately the product of a mind that is afraid of the unknown, and therefore tries to know everything, to capture everything, to secure everything, and thereby to control everything in the interest of what it believes is its own security.

All this is not to say that technology needn't have some role to play or be useful to us in many ways. Obviously I am typing this now on a machine that makes use of databases. Please try not to misunderstand me. The same is true for any technology. Fire can be used to heat a home or burn it down. But at this stage in our collective evolution technology has been made to serve technocracy first and foremost, by those claiming to be protectors of humanity but who are in fact its biggest abusers. Such technocracy is partly what enables a diminishing of the lives of sentient beings down to systems of abstraction that serve to populate the mental conceptions of the technocrat in order to further some scheme or other.

Am I here accusing those who run Planet Fitness or similar chains of being active agents of a cabal who have deliberately set about erecting such data collection policies for nefarious purposes? Hardly so (though it can certainly be argued that such cabals exist). I have no doubt they are people as complex as you or I, and I cannot pretend to know their actual motivations and intentions any more than they might pretend to know mine, without direct interpersonal experience through real relationship, which is radically different than what is accomplished by placing people into tables/columns/rows as mere input/output values, whether that be in a computer database or in the confines of our own minds when we stereotype and judge.

Regardless, these businesses should be aware that as far as their data collection policies go, I suspect that increasingly people will come to shun them and ultimately devalue such cookie-cutter, lowest common denominator, 'factory-fitness' centers, in favor of more close knit, community oriented gyms that tend to operate from a more humanistic realm.

The parallels here may be quite similar in manner to how in recent decades so many have come to understand the dangers of and therefore to eschew pesticide-ridden foods in favor of more wholesome and healthy organic produce. Of course such conscious choices may come at a premium, as is true with shopping organic, but it is no big mystery that we get what we pay for.

As for myself, I will continue to live my life as I see healthy, and vote with my wallet where and when I can, and though I may be forced to make certain concessions, knowing at day's end that I do not exist on this earth to be merely a number in a centralized database. I am an eternal variable, “running through the field where all my tracks will be concealed.”

If you enjoyed this article please follow the author @curving and also have a look at some of his older posts.

---

Please follow me on my blog @jacor if you enjoy my topics and content.

@jacor features authors to promote a diversity of content and new authors. All STEEM Dollars for these posts go to the featured author.

If you are looking to be featured as an author, please contact me via email - [email protected]

---