My Weekly Scribble 2008-03-02

Once again the paparazzi dog the House of Windsor. It is ironic that having been implicated in the death of his Mother; the press has now threatened the life of Harry, her son. Prince Henry has been serving on the front line in Afghanistan since December in an undercover operation honoured by the British Tabloids but his cover was blown by the Australian Press this week and his unit was forced to return to England for their own safety.

Once again the public’s right to know and the freedom of the press are pitted against the safety and security of a public figure. Those of us who buy and read these publications are equally to blame for providing a market for these tabloids in our insatiable desire to know the minutest details of a celebrity’s life. Modern technology has made it impossible to hide anywhere from those who would snoop. It is impossible for an athlete to scratch an itch on any part of his body without risking the threat of it appearing on the evening news or in the morning paper. The list of political careers wrecked by an off-the-cuff-remark made near a mike that shouldn’t have been open is endless. Telephoto lenses, parabolic mikes, wiretaps, eaves-dropping devices, and satellites in space make it impossible to hide anywhere. The chambers used by the College of Cardinals to select the next Pope used to be bricked in so that their only contacts with the outside world were the plumbing system and the dumb waiter used to supply their meals. The sign that a new Pope had been elected was the wet straw added to the fire when the ballots were burned. In our modern world this scenario is laughable.

Cell phones, text messaging, and the internet make it possible to be constantly in touch instantly with what is happening anywhere on earth. A mountain climber dying of altitude sickness on Mount Everest at an altitude too high to be reached by rescue helicopters used a satellite phone to call home to say good bye to his wife. Whether or not she appreciated this last communication from her husband the irony of the situation does not escape me. Just last week Fidel Castro used the internet to announce his resignation. Does this constant connectedness to the outside world actually improve our lives? In an office setting the constant ringing of phones, the arrival of new E-mail, faxes, and the beeping of cell phones make it impossible to get any work done. Concert halls, hospitals, and meeting rooms find it necessary to ban these devices. Do we really need cell phone service on our subways? The disconnect is best illustrated by a pair of executives on a businessman’s lunch busy talking on their cell phones to other people or a mother who texts her son upstairs in his bedroom that dinner is ready. In all this mass of communication we have lost human contact with those around us.

Just as it is now possible to keep a body technically alive for years after the individual inside it is clinically dead; the fact that we can be constantly electronically in touch with the world at large doesn’t mean that it is necessarily a good thing that we actually do so. Too much information and stimulus can lead to intellectual and emotional overload. We need time for quiet reflection and contemplation. Why else would oriental practices that teach this be so popular? We need sleep so that we may dream but wakeful day-dreaming is equally healthy. The fact that it is possible for us to learn what Tom Cruise had for breakfast doesn’t make it right or necessary for us to have this information. Technology continues to outpace philosophical, theological, and legislative thought on its use. Celebrities’ rights to privacy and by corollary those of ordinary citizens will become more and more burning issues in the years to come. Does the fact that their fame fuels their salaries make it right for the public to stalk Sports and Entertainment Stars 24/7? I think not!