Eternal Citizen Vigilance, Now on Your iPhone!
I guess this app has been out for a while, but I heard about it this morning. The Patriot App -- for iPhone -- allows the user to report suspicious activity to the relevant federal office, keep abreast of the FBI's Most Wanted list, lodge product safety complaints, announce pandemics, report on government waste, and a bunch of other things people with a lot of time on their hands might want to do.
It's fully integrated with existing social networks, so whatever you enter into the Patriot App can get Tweeted or Facebooked instantly.
It seems kind of silly to me -- the notion that there's some federal office somewhere that will actually respond to a Tweeted-in report of suspicious activity, or will hop right on that government waste complaint, is hilariously naive. Although if you check out the iTunes page, here, you can see that some of our fellow citizens aren't so sanguine. Lots of talk about "1984" and "Big Brother" and (of course) Nazis, Nazi Germany, and my favorite, the "gustapo" (sic), which sounds like one of those obscure pastas.
I'll have the gustapo with clams, thanks.
You have to be deeply out of touch with reality to think this app is going to be effective, so whether you're for it or against it, you're probably wasting your time.
On the other hand, it's free. So maybe download it. You never know when you're going to have to report a pandemic.
- Comment (7)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (2)
Comments :
Jul '10
Re: Eternal Citizen Vigilance, Now on Your iPhone!
Civil disobedience! Every conservative with an iPhone downloads the app, and during the SOTU address, report an act of treason! Maybe we can crash the server.
Jul '10
Re: Eternal Citizen Vigilance, Now on Your iPhone!
You can crash the server by reporting all post offices under "government waste...."
or all DMVs......
or all public schools.....
or....
Dec '10
Re: Eternal Citizen Vigilance, Now on Your iPhone!
This does seem silly and pointless, but might be fun for making mischief.
Aug '10
Re: Eternal Citizen Vigilance, Now on Your iPhone!
Gustapo would be a good name for a Joy Division cover band.
May '10
Re: Eternal Citizen Vigilance, Now on Your iPhone!
I do like the little flag at top showing the current "National Threat Level". I can use that to assess my travel plans minute by minute.
Aug '10
Re: Eternal Citizen Vigilance, Now on Your iPhone!
The entire concept of "keeping an eye out for suspicious activity from your neighbor" seems very authoritarian to me. It is reminiscent of the Red Scare under Wilson. It seems more like something the former Soviet Union would ask of its citizens than something that a free nation would ask. The tyrannical often seems silly at first.
How ridiculous are we willing to become in the name of Security? When I first read David Foster Wallace's piece "Just Asking" back in 2007, I was quick to criticize it because of what I thought was a significant flaw. I pointed out how the difference between civilian deaths and military ones is that soldiers have actively made the decision that they are willing to die for their country, it is what makes them noble.
I have since come to wonder how much I genuinely value freedom, and I have come to find the continuing abrogation of freedoms in the name of security untenable.
May '10
Re: Eternal Citizen Vigilance, Now on Your iPhone!
...and the East Germain judge scores it... a 10!