 Nora Biette-Timmons of Jezebel has an amusing if expletive-filled take on how Christmas accustoms children to live in a surveillance state. She enumerates the bad actors, beginning with Santa Claus: “[H]e who is ‘making a list and checking it twice’ who is ‘gonna find out who is naughty and nice.’ You know who else is making lists of names? The FBI, the NSA, every tech company you have ever heard of (and, probably more worrying, every tech company you haven’t) … In fact, the promise that Santa’s checking his list twice might be worse! You’re teaching your kid to accept being surveilled, but then there’s the reassurance that someone’s double-checking the work, that you won’t accidentally end up on the Naughty List if you don’t truly belong there. The same cannot be said for the federal government.” Then there is the ultimate bad actor, the very popular Elf on a Shelf. “The Elf ‘exists’ to report to Santa at the end of every day. Ostensibly this is to update the big guy on your kids’ Christmas wishes, but implicit in the idea of reporting is that they’re also updating him on behavior … Elf on the Shelf is a narc!!” We at PPSA love Christmas and everything about it. We are reassured, not bothered, by the idea that a metaphysical gift-giver wants us to be good to each other. But as long as we break no laws, whether we’re naughty or nice is no business of the FBI, the NSA, and tech companies we have or have not heard of. Comments are closed.
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