For my blog post, I wanted to discuss another topic from the analytical paper that I did not select for my specific paper. I wanted to talk about the idea of security and how it has changed over time.

At one time, security used to mean keeping the country as a whole safe and protected from invasion and being overrun by our enemies. Around this time, the main concern was to protect our borders and not allow attacks. Then, Pearl Harbor happened in 1941 and this concept was revamped yet again. This showed a new moment in our society, which meant we were no longer "invincible" as people may have thought. 

For a while following this, security meant building up our arms and military power to ward off potential enemy countries. During the cold war, we kept security in a somewhat ironic way, by "scaring off" other countries. Then, we felt as though we were maintaining security by exerting our own political ideals on other countries, such as in the Korean or Vietnam wars. We felt as though in order to be secure, we wanted the rest of the world to not fall to communism and instead follow democracy. 

Our idea of security changed once again following the attack on the twin towers on September 11th, 2001. This event changed our presence of security at all kinds of transport, buildings and created a new department in the government (Department of Homeland Security). Our concept of security now shifted to us being worried about our safety to travel on an airplane or go to work. This completely revamped what we knew to be security, putting the whole nation in a borderline lockdown for a few months.

The last stage of our security mindset changing has come with the omnipresent digital age that continues to overwhelm our lives. As everything becomes so readily accessible, more and more people are attempting to exploit and expose people's private information. People want to feel that their data is secure because the repercussions of this kind of data being leaked out are very severe. There is a document on Netflix that encapsulates this concept very well, called The Social Dilemma. It walks through someone's day and all the data collected about him. It is honestly rather scary how much our phones know about us and the potential power they have. Our society wants to feel secure in this environment.

Comments

  1. pols170 claire doyle blogOctober 5, 2021 at 12:56 PM

    I also discussed security within my blog post and my analytical essay. Security has changed drastically since the terrorist attack occurring on September 1, 2001. It was inevitable the United States and individuals had to reprioritize and evaluate current security standings.

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  2. Keri GilliganOctober 15, 2021 at 2:30 PM

    The idea of data security is definitely a relevant topic that has gotten a lot of attention. I think it is also interesting to compare how data is used across various states (US versus China for example). Above the government involvement in this, I think the most threatening is the way that large corporations like Facebook are using consumer data so heavily. Other corporations are doing to reach various groups and it definitely works, but it also brings up ethical concerns to personal surveillance.

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