"But if you have nothing to hide...."

A poster in the local paper today thinks that, due to the rash of gun violence that we should search shoppers at a local department store. (The store had an 'emergency' a few weeks ago when an older male shopper went through the store on their way to a Sporting Goods store carrying a knife) Metal detectors and all. One of the respondants agrees with the "if you have nothing to hide, this doesn't affect you.....Why worry about it?" retort. Ohhhhh boy, here we go....

It's the lame justification behind the searching that is the problem. It's approached from the perspective of being guilty before doing something. It has to do with putting a machine and or two rent a guards making 8.00 an hour in a position of power over others. It has to do with the idea of 'if you've done nothing wrong you have nothing to worry about' being an intellectual fallacy. Here is why I disagree with his rosy view of privacy. If I'm not doing anything wrong, then the government has no cause to watch me.The government gets to define what's wrong, but they keep changing the definition. They might do something wrong with my information-what recourse do I have? He assumes the government and LE is full of kind, good hearted, honest, forward thinking, truth seeking people. He assumes that it's never the 'government' but sometimes one or two people that ruin it for everyone. He is wrong. HE says "I have nothing to hide", I pose prove it. If you believe the definition of anything currently legal can't change to suit a whim you are foolishly naive. Id love to ask how much money he makes, or if he is circumcised or not, or if I can film him having sex with someone. It's all legal-there is no guarantee of privacy, however there IS a guarantee against unreasonable search and seizure. I shouldn't have to subject myself to a search to go to a damn department store. What good would it do? I couldn't find things within the store itself with which to wreak havoc? There are people like this that vote and truly believe the gubmint is all right. I fear for them as much as fear for me, but thank them, too-since they will be the first ones rounded up because of their complacency.