Surveillance as Social Disorder
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36253/rifp-3287Keywords:
surveillance, privacy, Property, libertarianismAbstract
This article argues that hierarchical, systematic, state-mandated surveillance is a precondition for an increase in government influence over the lives of individuals, a violation of property rights, and the social disorder that always comes with planned societies. The first section provides a conceptual definition of surveillance in juxtaposition with the definition of privacy. The second section explains how the government exploits the notion of risk to justify the growth of its surveillance apparatus, so that behaviors can be foreseen and controlled. In the third section, consequences of hierarchical surveillance such as higher taxation, more government planning, greater violations of property rights, and less societal trust are analyzed. The closing remarks submit that Hoppe’s argumentation ethics is able to justify, a priori, the desire of subtracting oneself from arguing with others, especially state agents, and that privacy is praxeologically needed to accomplish this goal.
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