Abstract
The private has great significance for the individual as it is where identity is stored. However, the private comes at a cost, particularly in a time of mass surveillance, which is heightened by the present Coronavirus pandemic, and is becoming more and more rare as individuals seek security. At the collective level, whole societies are moving towards privatisation, as the private gives relief from increased surveillance by media, governments and informed individuals and organisations, thus allowing more operational flexibility. Private and public are significant as polar ends of a spectrum in which individuals and collectivities must position themselves on a wide range of issues while maintaining identity. As shown in the case of airport privatisation, the determining process has been influenced by cultural factors such as a desire to avoid surveillance and scrutiny, sociological factors such as contagion, and political factors such as convergence. In all areas of human activity, a rebalancing between private and public may be necessary, and a transdisciplinary approach would be appropriate.
Highlights
1.1 The Meaning of Private The word private comes from the Latin privatus, meaning withdrawn from public life, peculiar to oneself, or a person in private life
The private comes at a cost, in a time of mass surveillance, which is heightened by the present Coronavirus pandemic, and is becoming more and more rare as individuals seek security
Private and public are significant as polar ends of a spectrum in which individuals and collectivities must position themselves on a wide range of issues while maintaining identity
Summary
1.1 The Meaning of Private The word private comes from the Latin privatus, meaning withdrawn from public life, peculiar to oneself, or a person in private life. In that the concept of private expresses, maintains and affirms a unique sense of identity, it is enduring and universally appealing. Private and public together form a spectrum, being at polar ends from closed and exclusionary thought and behaviour to that which is open and available for recognition and inspection. Memory, thought and logic are manipulated to extend and maintain control, while expressions of free thought are severely punished. In this super-state, any tendency towards private life, such as individualism or eccentricity, which is called ownlife in the official language of Newspeak, leads to arrest and re-education, and torture and death. As Smith had already remarked, privacy is a very valuable thing (Orwell, 2005, p. 159)
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