September 19, 2013

I opened a new bottle of probiotics this morning, and it had one of those circular “seals” on the top, you know, the one that says “Sealed for your protection.”

And that seal got me thinking… how much protection do we need? How much security is enough?

How much homogenization, pasteurization, disinfection, national security, etc… do we need before we stop, or at least slow down and allow nature (and our own individual and collaborative thoughts) to do the rest?

How many wars (not just abroad I’m afraid), surveillance methods, widespread data gathering efforts, etc… do we need before we say we have ENOUGH?

(In my opinion, the idea of “World Peace” will never happen if we keep fighting, and finding more reasons to fight etc…)

And don’t get me wrong…

I respect our soldiers for what they do, my best friend was a Marine. I respect the good intentions of all the people involved in trying to make our lives safer and more comfortable (with less diseases, safer food processes etc…).

My intention here isn’t really “against” anything, like in a protest — style of mindset, nope. (I also wonder why we always have to have a “for” and “against”)

But I just think we have to start asking some serious questions as a whole (in addition to the ones I’ve already pointed out).

For example…

The NSA recently has been revealed to have abused their stated mission by Edward Snowden, and as usually happens in these situations, some of the politicians and officials are lying to cover their tracks because they don’t like the fact they got caught with their pants down (it is the Information Age, duh).

They say they are doing all of this in the interest of “national security”… but I’m asking how much national security do we need before we reach a point of diminishing returns?

How many times are we going to keep going to the well of referencing the tragic events of 09/11 to justify deepening security, while we continue sacrificing more of our privacy?

Why do they feel the need to violate everything we hold dear in this country to do their jobs at the NSA (and FBI, and CIA, etc…)?

I get it NSA, secure the nation, but as experts in that national security (because most information is classified, except to the NSA officials), as experts you have to also know when enough is enough.

But continuing on, in addition to our “sealed for protection” national situation, let’s pose another series of questions…

Remember when you used to play in the dirt as a child (or watch as other kids did it)?

Remember when you got a cold, which may (in a few cases) turn into a sinus infection, and you just “rode it out” instead of going to your doctor and lighting up another round of antibiotics?

You developed natural immunity (always the best kind)… and moved on.

Not every disease is a “cold”… I get that… but…

Are we striving for creating some sort of “clean room society” where nothing can infect us? Is that really beneficial?

Can we relax a bit on the “kills 99% of germs” mentality?

There isn’t, nor will there ever be, a 100% secure, disease-proof, clean room quality, fluffy, perfect world folks. In fact when it comes to viruses and bacteria, it seems that the harder we try to make it that way, the more Nature kicks our ass.

For more on the security idea, I recommend you read from an expert on the subject.

In the end, I think we have a choice to make, do we do the impossible task of striving for an “airtight” society, attempting to block out all invaders (natural, and otherwise)… which if we want to proceed this way, we would at some point have to factor in this and this…

… or do we relax a bit, and just keep our heads about us… calmly accepting the fact that “Sealed for your protection” might not always be the best course of action.

I’m obviously thinking deeply about the latter.

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