Why Modern Society Must Do Away With Privacy ASAP

When progress trumps privacy ... In 1890, two of America's leading legal minds, Louis Brandeis and Samuel Warren, published an article called "The Right to Privacy" in the Harvard Law Review. Scandalized by the rise of a gossip-mongering press that intruded on the lives of prominent citizens, they called upon the courts to recognize a "right to privacy." Their fear was that new technological and commercial innovations — in this case photography and the mass-circulation gossip rag — would cause the rich and famous untold mental pain and distress. As Stewart Baker observes in his provocative book Skating on Stilts, the substance of Brandeis and Warren's argument now seems rather quaint, as a gossipy news media has become a central part of our public life. In Baker's telling, "the right to privacy was born as a reactionary defense of the status quo." And even now, he argues, privacy campaigners often overreact against new technologies they fear but do not understand. Baker's argument has been panned in civil libertarian circles. – Reuters 

Dominant Social Theme: We live in modern times and people simply have to discard the idea that government ought to be kept out of their private lives. 

Free-Market Analysis: Think of government as a stern father or an understanding confessor. Reveal your most intimate secrets. It won't hurt. And it will help to forget that governments slaughtered something like 200 million people in the 20th century.

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