One Nation Under Surveillance?

Just 15 years ago most of us were still getting most of our mail delivered by the USPS postman. Now it has become very rare even in the case of most bills.

I have often wondered, if the equivalent of today’s mass surveillance had been going on 20 or even just 10 years ago… and people would find ALL their PERSONAL cards and letters had been copied, opened, read and stored by their “Protective government,” would they have responded with the same stoicism and indifference that seems to permeate today’s sheeple?

I think here would have been a MIGHTY uproar! Yet because its “Digital” it doesn’t seem to register…GO FIGURE?

Who wouldn’t be upset if they found strangers had been going to their personal stuff, searched through their file cabinets and drawers, read ALL their PRIVATE records and looked through their very personal (those not placed on Face Book) photo albums? Or would it be ok if people knew it had happened but the burglars left no traces and placed everything back where it originally was?

It wouldn’t be! But the very same thing is happening today! (NSA, IRS, DHS, and the acronyms go on and on and on….”

WELCOME TO ONE NATION UNDER SURVEILLANCE!

Comments

The Moldy Middle

While taking statistics during my quest to get an MBA and while earning my engineering degree, the professors always emphasized the importance of finding the statistical mean of any population by using the Central Mean Theorem (a.k.a the highest point of the Bell Curve). As an engineer, this was essential in order to maximize throughput, minimize cost and waste, and ultimately make a better, faster, cheaper widget. A funny thing happened on the way to the dark side of marketing. I discovered that the only thing in the middle of the road was quite literally dead road kill. I do not know if you remember stores like Bradlees, Ames and Service Merchandise (just to name a few), but they all folded because the environment changed and they were caught trying to service the mythological “average customer.” Part of that change came when Wal-Mart began its juggernaut with the discount department store. Wal-Mart did two things right: 1) Focused on “mobile” consumers, and 2) Fo...

Fortune Cookie of Persistence

There are many things or factors that can determine a person’s success or failure, but one thing that cuts across EVERY successful person I have met or read about or studied is perseverance, persistence, stick-to-itiveness, and determination. As I say, "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. The desire and ability to press on has and always will solve the problems of the human race and divide those who achieve from those who might have been." Incredibly, this ONE characteristic is really what makes a true entrepreneur as testimony to these little factoids: Coca-Cola only sold twenty five (25) bottles in its first year of business! They grossed $50.0 and spent $73.96 on merchandising. But they kept on going and never gave up, and nowadays the sell more than one billion bottles per day! Apple Computer co-founder offered the computer design to Hewlett-Packard five times and was rejected by both HP and Atari (the giant at the time) for acquisition. A...

Your Customers (and your Mother) Always Know

Over the years, I have been amazed at the number of businesses that think they can "get away" with something with their customers. Either by lowering product standards, charging for useless features, making it more difficult to get customer service, or just flat out lying to them. So, I will explain why this is so detrimental with a short little story about a mother and her son and the son's female roommate. It involves the eternal knowledge and wisdom of mothers, and if you try to “pull something over their eyes” they have a way of using your own words to pry the truth out...just like your customers. ___________________________________________________ A Mother comes to visit her son for dinner. He lives with a female roommate. During the course of the meal, his mother couldn't help but notice how pretty her son's roommate is. Over the course of the evening, while watching the two interact, she started to wonder if there was more between her son and his ro...

The Profit Prophet

Search This Blog