Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
www.picadorusa.com
www.twitter.com/picadorusa ■ www.facebook.com/picadorusa
www.picadorbookroom.tumblr.com
Keizer, Garret.
Privacy / Garret Keizer.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-312-55484-2 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-4668-0200-1 (e-book)
1. Privacy. I. Title.
BF637.P74.K448 2012
302'.14—dc23
2012014919
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
1
were “sharing” their deed “out in the open,” and isn’t open-
ness always good? If they weren’t hiding anything, then how
could they be doing anything wrong?
I’m also doubtful if the commentators and court fully
grasped what had happened either. Early in the arraignment
of the accused, a question was raised as to whether Clemen-
ti’s dorm-mates had witnessed explicit sexual activity or
merely a chaste romantic interlude. One sensed a collective
bated breath as reporters sought to determine just how
steamy the details had been, as if arranging a surreptitious
peek at a young man putting on his deodorant or saying his
prayers or practicing his violin would have been no big deal.
People put that stuff on YouTube all the time.
There was also a prevailing assumption that Clementi had
taken his life because he could not live with the public disclo-
sure of his sexual orientation, a tragedy that might so easily
have been prevented with a vaccination of political correct-
ness. If only he’d realized that we didn’t have a problem with
his being gay—the more enlightened of us anyway—then he
could not possibly have had a problem with our acquiring the
knowledge, vox populi vox Dei and all that. In fact, Clementi
had already come out to his family and to a friend. It is far
more plausible to assume that he took his life because he
found the thought of living in a world without privacy un-
bearable. Why else would societies take such pains to punish
theft beyond the requirement of simple restitution if not that
they realize how much their very existence depends on a cov-
enant of trust? Who steals my purse steals trash, but who
steals the confidence with which I take my purse to market
trashes my world.
These basic misconceptions, coupled with personal expe-
riences like the one with Ralph, make me deeply skeptical
of the popular notion that older norms of privacy are being
10 | privacy
Amazon
Barnes
&
Noble
IndieBound
macmillan.com