BillBarksdaleRealEstateJournal&Thoughts About Life

                                                            

                                                                I Am Not A Robot
                                                                 By Bill Barksdale

Often when I log onto a website, before I can proceed I have to click a box that says “I am not a robot”, a precaution by the site manager to make sure there’s an actual person and not some machine doing mischief. In a very real way computers have made this a small world. Electronic mass communication is so common now that most of us are not only always connected, but under surveillance as information is constantly gathered about us.

Eighty percent of the calls that come to my home are dialed by a robot. I answer my phone with a robot that tells me who is calling and then my robot tells the caller – often another robot – to leave a message or please hang up. I recently heard of a home security device that allows one to remotely see what’s going on in their home. It seems the problems with some of these devises is they can be hacked and someone else can see what’s going on in your home too. 

The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights says “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” The question then is, is it legal or ethical for someone - including government entities, corporations or anyone else - to search your home, papers (read that as all correspondence including internet searches and emails), effects (personal belongings), or you - without a good reason “probable cause”? 

Do you think the Constitution implies that your privacy can be violated just because we now have the technology that makes it possible? Before you answer, read the Constitution. It’s short and readily available. The founding fathers of the U.S. couldn’t have foreseen computers, but as technology evolves, the courts have an obligation to update and apply the intention of the Constitution to U.S. law. Rigging our justice system with biased, activist judges who have life-time appointments is unethical, and I argue, unconstitutional. 

This is a real estate issue because the issue is home invasion. If your privacy and home are being invaded without Probable Cause, that’s a violation of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Some judges claim they are “Constitutional originalists”, a new extremist term saying they intend to stick to 240 year old technology and not acknowledge that – things change! We don’t live like we did 240 years ago. “Constitutional Originalist” and the evolution of technology are fundamentally opposed.  

We’ve tragically come to accept that if we want to watch TV or use a computer, we are being tracked. Your information is sold and used to manipulate you with targeted advertising or messages to influence what you think, how you vote and what you do. We’ve come to expect it, but our apathy and pathetic feeling of powerlessness allows the invasion of privacy. 

That’s not the legal intent of the Constitution. Many of us, especially younger people have grown up with computers, cell phones, “social media” and have never known a world where true privacy existed. No American should be OK with being spied on without “Probable Cause”. That’s literally unconstitutional. 

Privacy is something that billions of people say is important to them. Large corporations and government entities spend billions to protect their illegal activities which invade our homes and our privacy. I have no doubt that the people who drafted and signed the Constitution of the U.S.A. would not approve. After all, just because you can, does that make it OK or legal? 

If you are unduly influenced to behave and think in a way that benefits a few thousand people in the world, that’s not OK. Never take invasion of privacy for granted. 

We’ve been brainwashed into thinking that a “market” is a kind of god, and that unethical invasion of privacy is legal and “constitutional” if there’s a buck to be made, or minds changed without all factual information. Moronic economic theories espoused by people like economists Milton Friedman and Alan Greenspan – shapers of the “Trickle Down theory” of economics in the 1970’s & 80’s and still in operation today, makes no realistic sense. It doesn’t work. That’ been proven, but we’re still being sold that absurd “Trickle Down” lie.

When Alan Greenspan left his post as Chair of the Federal Reserve of the United States from 1987 to 2006 while the economy collapsed at the end of the George W. Bush administration in 2007, he admitted that his economic guidance didn’t work. “Too soon old. Too late smart.” 

A market is a question of supply and demand. If housing supply is kept scarce, people feel insecure. Insecurity is a profit-making strategy. If people feel insecure enough, some are willing to trade their freedom and privacy for survival or convenience. 

The only one that can stop the undermining of the United States of America is YOU! You have to vote. You have to get proactive by contacting your government representatives and letting them know that invasion of your privacy is not acceptable. If you don’t personally speak up, you will lose your privacy and freedom. Believe me, ALEC American Legislative Exchange Council, the Koch Brothers corporations who own one of the largest privately held corporations in the world, Facebook, and many other large corporations want nothing more than for you to not care - to be afraid. They have certain key politicians and judges in their wallets, in my opinion. 

Will you choose to be a robot to wealthy power brokers, and politicians and judges on their payroll or will you choose to breathe free? “Under all is the land”. You and I depend on that land and all that is on it in order to live. It doesn’t belong to just a few wealthy people. When you get complacent about your rights as a U.S. citizen you lose and evil wins. 

This is the time. Contact your local, state and federal representatives and let them know that you want to protect freedom and privacy. Vote. I can’t say that enough. If you want to live in a nation “Of the People. By the People, and for the People” you have to stand and speak up to protect that ideal. The United States is a continuously unfolding experiment and that experiment will fail if you don’t participate and defend it.

Bill Barksdale was a 2016 inductee into the Realtor® Hall of Fame. He is an agent at Coldwell Banker Mendo Realty Inc.