Just what is the matter here?

The second question Anonymous raises, “Why don't you focus on things that actually matter?”, is also worth pondering. The obvious answer is, “It does matter to me.” And that, together with the fact that it doesn’t matter to Anonymous, tells us more about me and Anon than about what matters. Personally I think it’s baseball and ballet that don’t matter, but they’ve mattered to millions of people for a long time -- baseball for decades and ballet for centuries -- so I’m clearly the oddball. But that’s not the end of it.

There was a time, not all that long ago, when neither baseball nor ballet mattered to anyone. Then they mattered to a few people, and now to millions. All because the people who thought they mattered encouraged others to think so too. It’s the story of human development and civilization.

On November 8, 1946, Viola Desmond, a 32-year-old Halifax beautician, went to a movie theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, and took a seat in a section reserved for Caucasians. When she refused to move or leave the theatre she was arrested, spent the night in jail, and was fined $20 plus $6 court costs.

Now, some people at the time probably felt, and likely said, that she was making a big deal out of nothing. Who cares where you sit in a movie theatre? Why not just move as dozens have before you? Why lose a night’s freedom and $26, embarrass your friends and family, and cause a big scene over something that doesn’t matter. But because she did this, and because others did similar things, no one would say that today. Today it obviously matters, because it first mattered to her.

Seat belts, ingredients on food packaging, universal health care, sterile surgical practices, rock ‘n’ roll, universal education, childproof lighters and pill bottles, habeas corpus, picking up your dog-droppings, and a hundred thousand other things that make our lives better today started with a few people thinking they mattered when most people didn’t.

We need to understand that the long form census is not what matters here, any more than getting a good seat for that movie was what mattered to Ms. Desmond. The census is merely the event that has raised the concern; actually two concerns.

1. Who decides where to draw the line between your public life and your private life?

2. Do we have a right to expect that the state will provide clear and compelling reasons for the use of coercion on it’s citizens?

If the concept of privacy means anything, YOU must be the answer to the first question. If the concepts of freedom and security mean anything, YES must be the answer to the second.

Privacy is essential to the development and maintenance of an independent citizenry, and, therefore, to a democratic society. Serious limitations on the coercive powers of the state are essential to freedom and security. And the development and maintenance of a free and democratic society matters.