0:00 - Introduction to Privacy
2:48 - The Balance of Privacy and Convenience
3:52 - Societal Expectations of Privacy
6:58 - Consequences of Privacy Choices
10:19 - Freedom and Perception of Privacy
In this lecture, Stefan Molyneux explores the nuanced relationship between privacy and societal functioning, provoking thought on how individual rights to privacy intersect with social expectations and consequences. He begins by acknowledging concerns raised regarding privacy in literature, particularly in the context of mandatory scans for children suspected of abuse. Molyneux empathizes with these privacy concerns but emphasizes the necessity of balancing privacy with essential societal needs.
Using relatable analogies, Molyneux illustrates the implications of privacy on various aspects of life, such as employment and personal relationships. He presents a scenario where a hiring manager is faced with a candidate who refuses to share any background information. This premise leads him to underscore that while individuals have the right to keep certain information private, the lack of transparency can adversely affect their prospects, both in hiring and in forming personal connections. He asserts that privacy, when taken to an extreme, can lead to skepticism and assumptions about one’s character and intentions.
Throughout the discussion, Molyneux navigates various instances where people willingly relinquish privacy for convenience, such as providing credit card information online. He argues that the societal norm often necessitates a trade-off between privacy and functionality, as individuals prioritize efficiency and convenience in their interactions. Molyneux further contemplates scenarios in dating and social interactions, asserting that complete privacy can inhibit relational development and trust, as exemplified by individuals who refuse to share fundamental information about themselves.
Molyneux also delves into the economic implications of privacy, particularly regarding verification processes in industries like insurance and real estate. He highlights that while individuals can opt for complete privacy, the resulting consequences, such as higher insurance premiums or unfavorable assumptions regarding one's reliability, are often overlooked. This sets the stage for a critical reflection on how privacy operates within the framework of societal obligations and individual freedoms.
The lecture culminates in Molyneux's call to acknowledge personal freedom as a two-sided coin; while individuals have the autonomy to withhold information, they also cannot control the perceptions and assumptions that arise from their privacy choices. By advocating for a thoughtful approach to disclosure, he challenges listeners to consider the long-term implications of privacy on their social and professional lives. Molyneux concludes by reiterating the importance of understanding the balance of freedom and consequence in the broader scope of human interaction, emphasizing that the exercise of privacy comes with its own set of societal interpretations and reactions.
[0:00] Well, good evening, everybody. Hope you're doing well. I'm Stefan Molyneux from Free Domain. So, the question of privacy came up in the live stream. I just wanted to do a wee bit of a follow-up on that one, lad. And the question of privacy, people said, well, in your novel, I didn't like the fact that you had all of this invasion of privacy, that it was mandatory to get these scans for your kids to find out if they were abused and so on, and people didn't like the privacy. Now, I get, I get the privacy thing. Of course, right? Of course. But I think it's also really important to not go too far in that direction, which is sort of a pointless thing to say. Let me sort of frame that. It's like, you're over-exaggerating. It's like, well, that's kind of by definition, right? So I want you to picture you're a hiring manager and someone wants a job. And let's say it's some high-level job requires a lot of skill education experience expertise and.
[1:04] The person comes in and you say can i see your resume and they hand you a blank sheet of paper or a sheet of paper with everything blacked out right well then you would say well no i can't see your education and your references and your experience and all kinds of stuff right, And if the person says, no, I'm going to keep that information private, that's fine. Then the person has exercised their right to privacy, but they won't get the job.
[1:34] You meet a woman, and you're both 35, let's say. You meet a woman, you think she's nice and smart, funny, cute, or whatever. And you talk with her, and you say, hey, what's your name? And she says, nope, that's private.
[1:50] Again, she has the perfect right to stay private. People do not need to, they don't have a right for you to tell them your name. So she's perfectly private. private however it would probably be wise to not have a second date right a little too private right or if you say tell me a little bit about your life oh my name is lacy okay lacy nice to meet you tell me a little bit about your life no that's private if you really really want to know if we have a good relationship five years after we married i will tell you i will i will put it in a, vault and you will get the combo five years after we married well that might be a little bit too much privacy, wouldn't it? On the other hand, if you said to a woman, yes, Lacey, nice to meet you. It'd be great if I could install a webcam in your shower. I'm like, okay, but that's private, right? So that's too much. Even if you're married, don't install a webcam in the woman's shower, right?
[2:48] That is some creepy Bates Motel owner.
[2:52] So privacy is interesting. We give up privacy privacy a lot in order to function in the world. We give websites our credit card information, right? And that's so we can have the convenience of buying things without mailing a check. If we mail the check, we wouldn't have to give out our credit card information. But we prefer the convenience of not having to mail a check. They prefer the convenience of not having the check and having to go cash it and verify it and then ship the stuff off as well and all that, right? Having the check bounce, all that kind of stuff.
[3:26] So we give up privacy for convenience and economic efficiency all the time. I mean, imagine if there's some kid and it's his birthday. He's a new kid at school. It's his birthday. And he says, I really want to have a birthday party. And you say, sounds great. Where is it? No, I'm not going to tell you. I'm not going to tell you. I'm not going to tell you my address because that's private.
[3:53] So I think we sort of understand, right? Right. So giving up privacy is kind of essential to be able to function in life and society. People who say this is Aristotelian mean, right? It's a bell curve. So people who say far too little about themselves. Right. So if you meet a woman and she has, she's 40 or whatever, and you say, can you tell me a little bit about your dating history? And she will say, no, no, I will not tell you anything about my dating history. Again, she's perfectly free to not tell you anything about her dating history, right? Perfectly free to not say a thing. And you're perfectly free to make a decision based on that. So another thing is that if you are buying a, And the price has dropped recently.
[4:49] Well, that's private information, right? So maybe for you, right? And if you were to say, has the price changed? They could say, the real estate agent or the owners could say, well, I'm not telling you that. I'm not telling you whether the price has changed or not. Okay. And they may never publish it. They may have just kept it completely private or something like that. And it's like, okay, well, that's totally fine.
[5:10] You can keep your, whether you pay your bills or not, or whether you have outstanding loans, your credit score and so on, you could, in a free society, you could opt out of all of that, of course, and all that would happen is that you would end up having to pay more for borrowing money because people wouldn't have much of an example of whether you paid your bills back or or not so you're free of course to be as private as you want in a free society however you have to accept that people will assume that you are keeping private in some areas because the information is bad so if you're dating a woman and with the intent of getting married she's a young woman and she's she's a virgin she will probably not keep that to herself right she will say i'm i've never i've never had sex before i'm i'm a virgin and not any of this cheaty cheaty stuff but like genuinely not had sex before right okay so whereas if a woman refuses this let me just have to do this exercise right if a woman refuses to tell you anything about her sexual history right what do you assume? See, remember, freedom is not freedom from consequences. You are perfectly free to not tell anyone about your job history, but that means that you won't get hired for anything but entry-level jobs.
[6:37] You know, maybe you've got, you want to get a job as a singer. Well, they're going to ask you to do an audition. You say, well, no, no, no. I want to keep my singing voice private. It's like, okay, then you won't get hired as a singer, right? You understand, So, remember, freedom is fine, but you are not free to control the contents of other people's minds.
[6:58] Are not free to control the contents of other people's minds, which means that you are not free to escape the consequences of suspicious privacy. I read an internet article just out of curiosity many years ago called How to Disappear, you know, and it was like, you know, pay as much cash as possible.
[7:21] Don't be ostentatious, don't play loud music, don't do anything that draws attention to you don't have a loud car don't have a flashy car don't dress in a flashy way like all the things about like how to sort of blend in and fade into some man in a gray flannel suit mpc background oh yeah that's fine you can do that don't ask detailed questions don't get to know people that well like if you were i don't know on the run from the law or something right then you really really wanted to disappear i was just i thought it was i thought it was interesting i wasn't having any plans but i thought it was interesting to read i've always been sort of curious about that kind of stuff. What's life like on the lam? I don't mean like mint sauce, but like on the run.
[8:01] So you are free to be as private as you want. So of course, in a free society, no one's going to force you to have a non-invasive, non-painful brain scan of your child to look for child abuse. But given that the economic advantages of doing that and having a healthy, happy child are so high, saying, I'm not going to have my child checked for child abuse, I'm not going to have my child checked for the effects of child abuse, how many people are going to say that's really good? You have nothing but good motives about that. You have nothing but wonderful, warm-hearted, good motives about all of that. Well, I think most people would say that if you don't want your your child checked for symptoms of child abuse, that odds are you're abusing your child.
[8:52] If someone says, no, I'm not a smoker for some insurance, right, health insurance or life insurance, and someone says, no, I'm not a smoker, and then the insurance company says, well, we're going to, you know, take a swab in your mouth and look for presence of nicotine, and they say, no, that's invasive.
[9:09] Well, it's just spit, right? You can spit in a cup or I don't know, whatever, right? Or maybe even if they have to draw blood or whatever, right? so if you say i'm not a smoker but you won't allow any verification of it then they will simply say well okay you're perfectly free to not spit into a cup and have us look for signs of nicotine but if you don't give us that spit to check for nicotine then we're going to assume that you're we're going to have to put you down as a smoker like it perfectly but there are consequences a woman's perfectly free to tell you nothing about her dating or sexual history or anything about her life but odds are you're probably not going to want to date her you're perfectly free to hide everything about your work history, but you're not going to get jobs that require particular work history and education. You never have to tell anyone where you got educated, but if you got a good education and don't tell anyone, they will not assume that you have a good education. They will assume that you don't, right? So you are free to hide whatever you want, but there are consequences to that hiding, right? You can hide anything you want, right? If a woman is on a date and she's been on a couple of dates with you and you say, oh, let's go back to your place. And she says, I'm never going to tell you where I live. Never going to tell you where I live. Would you feel comfortable with that? Well, she's exercising privacy.
[10:19] So again, it's all about choices and consequences. You can keep things private.
[10:25] That's perfectly a prerogative, but you cannot control how other people will perceive you keeping things private. And that's the important thing.
[10:34] So freedom for you is freedom for other people. You are free to keep anything you want private. it. Other people are free to infer as much negative stuff as they want from that reality. So just remember that you can, anything you want, but you also cannot control how other people perceive whatever it is that you're doing. So I hope that makes sense. And of course, I appreciate your time, care, attention, and thoughtfulness. Freedomain.com slash donate to help out the show. I would most appreciate it. Thanks.
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