Visible Man

Visible Man

In the essay “Visible Man,” Peter Singer details how privacy has changed with technological advancements and new laws. He likes the idea of a world with less privacy, and believes that we would become better people and that we would be much safer. I disagree with his stance. I believe there are some things that we are better off not knowing, that being under constant surveillance will cause us to become fearful, and that confidential information that is leaked can bring harm to our citizens.

First, while being filled in on everything our government and military do sounds like a great idea, I think some things should be kept confidential. Certain things, like great injustices that are backed by a government or the leader of a nation should be exposed because the information could cause the people to start a revolution in order to better their county, as shown by Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. Financial statements of corporations are available to the public for the protection of stockholders, and corruption should be exposed for the good of the economy. However, actions that could harm international relations by individuals who were not ordered by their government or group should be kept confidential. These actions do not accurately portray their body of authority as a whole, and can harm relations between countries and harm opinions people have of the group. For example, the video from the cockpits of U.S. Army helicopters attacking civilians in Baghdad should not have been released because the people acting in the footage were not told to do so by their government. The soldiers in the video were likely either under a large amount of stress and fear in a war zone causing them to act that way, or they were just a few rotten eggs out of the U.S. Army as a whole. The attention

that the video got made it seem like the helicopter crews were an example of the entire Army, and could have hurt Middle Eastern relations or even domestic relations, similar to how American soldiers returning from Vietnam were spat on. While I believe videos and files of individuals acting badly in their group's name should be kept a secret, I still think that their groups should still try to teach