December 16, 2004
National Identification Cards
I see that there is a renewed push to standardize state ID's. The usual suspects are griping about it paving the way for a national ID card. I really don't understand some of the pet causes of civil libertarians (even when I was a libertarian I never did get the objections to this one). I have always supported a national ID card, along with legislation mandating that it be carried at all times. In the old days people where known in their communities, making such things redundant, but now it is not so. If the police collar a miscreant, they might have no idea who he is. If they knew that failing to carry an ID only would add to their sentence, they would carry it.
Civil Libertarian types need to just sit down, take some deep breaths and repeat a hundred times:
"A national ID does not amount to taking away our freedom."
"A national ID does not amount to taking away our freedom."
And so on.
To paraphrase my grandmother, "if you want to whine about your freedom being taken away, then come here and I will give you something to whine about!"
Believe!
Obey!
Fight!
1) I have forgotten my driver's lisence- and had to pay for not having "my papers".
But the problem was not having your papers in order, not that papers were needed.
There are no perfect bureaucracies (at least not yet, the Keilholtz Dictatorship will have the best mind-numbing procedures in human history), but administrative errors can be corrected.
Just ask Mr. Buttle, er, Tuttle!
Posted by: Erik Keilholtz at December 21, 2004 1:01 AMNational ID cards or biometric scaning is modernist rebellion against a problem of modernity- annonymity. I recognize the problem. However I'm not even a libertarian and I hate this idea.
Several reasons. 1) I have forgotten my driver's lisence- and had to pay for not having "my papers". 2) I've never ever experienced flawless administration. If you are one of those 1 in a million people whose biometrics get botched up on the card you will look VERY GUILTY if your card and retinas don't match the way they ought to. You will look like a foriegn agent- or if not that- someone that should at least be declared an enemy combatant and stripped of legal recourse.
Just think of that horror-the memory of that government employee who was spending her time concentrating on how pissed she was at her nail appointment- instead of concentrating on transferring your biometric details to some card- or some omni-present, omni competent computer- you thanked her after she made her bueracratic error- and now you are a criminal.
Posted by: Michael Brendan Doughety at December 20, 2004 6:15 AMMr. Smithers:
If one is worried about oligarchs, isn't it a bit late? Why worry about something as banal as government issued id cards (passports? social security numbers? tax returns?), when we willingly give so much of our freedom away with credit cards and checking accounts? Besides, Tom Cruise and Spielberg showed how to get past retina scans in _Minority Report_, right?
SC
Erik,
You are sooo mid-twentieth century!! Get your fascism more up-to-date.
Biometrics has obsoleted ID cards. Soon you will be subjected to a retina eyescan or thumbprint to go anywhere or do anything.
You ID card argument might hold a little water if there were any just governments on the planet that could be trusted not to abuse such information. As it is, the oligarchs should not be given such an advantage.
And yes, I know that's a slippery slope argument.
Posted by: BP at December 18, 2004 10:21 AMEhh. Sounds like Japan under the emporers, where Big Brother was real and you needed a pass to get from avenue to avenue or walk at night. Yes, security was air-tight. Sure, revolts were harder to come by. But it's pretty scary.
Posted by: BP at December 18, 2004 10:20 AMSo, what is the difference between a national ID card and a state ID card/driver's license? Or for that matter, my passport, which I need to get back into this country as much as I do to get into Italy?
SC