Anything you say may be taken in evidence...

An amusing answerphone message today reminded me that we are constantly analysing and recording ourselves. There is a certain obsession that we have with being able to recall things accurately. Think about computers, for instance - the second thing they are built for, apart from to perform complex calculations, is to store information. Why are we followed around by security cameras every day _as well as_ security guards? The simple answer
is that we regard the camera as more reliable than the human in charge of it. We only trust our own judgement. What if the security guard was a compulsive liar? What if he was a homicidal maniac masquerading as a normal person? When can we trust our own personal psychological judgements? This paranoia seems to pervade society, and certainly has an affect on my
personal life. When can we actually /trust/ someone to do what they say? I just carry on answering the door until one day the gas man stabs me in the chest in an involuntary spasm of psychotic behaviour. I certainly can't predict these things and I shouldn't be expected to. My problem with this over-indulgent voyeurism is that it encourages more violence, more hysteria.
Rather than protecting the people, it reminds them that there need necessarily be more criminals present in the world, and out of that need springs the required class of people. Think of the prime example in question: in America the people have guns, so instead of protecting them, them becoming more safe, everyone becomes a threat to them. The protection becomes not the prime, initial cause, but the aggravating factor.

I think now would be the time to say that I saw, on my way to buy some lunch, a girl on a bicycle crying. Mascara was streaming down her face and she was sobbing. It only lasted a second or so, but I heard her before I saw her. There is something very plaintive about that situation, something pathetic. Crying is something people usually do in private, but she had decided that she didn't care if anyone was watching. Anway I'm not crying today, I'm rejoicing because lots of things are happening. I've discovered I'm happiest when I'm busy and scheduled in to do lots of things. Let's just try and keep it that way.