The naked society PDF
Preview The naked society
T h e Originally published in 1964, The Naked Society was the first book to discuss how then-new N technologies such as hidden microphones, concealed cameras, and the polygraph lie detector a were being used by government, employers, stores, credit bureaus, security personnel, and k e other officials to invade our civil liberties. Such activity, which represented the most flagrant d of the many assaults upon individual rights, is only part of this truly shocking and prescient book, which also considers the ominous implications of loyalty investigations, passport and S o travel restrictions, and overzealous police actions. In the end, according to Packard, new c technologies, manipulated by government and business, were eroding our freedoms, creating i e a world akin to something out of George Orwell’s 1984. t y Timelier than ever in today’s world where our civil liberties are under constant threat from | technology and the actions of government and business, this fiftieth anniversary edition of V The Naked Society features an introduction by noted historian Rick Perlstein, author of A N Nixonland and The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan. C E VANCE PACKARD (1914—1996) was an American journalist, social critic, and best-selling P author. Among his books were The Hidden Persuaders, on how advertisers use psychological A methods to tap into our unconscious desires, The Status Seekers, which described C K American social stratification and behavior, and The Waste Makers, which criticizes planned A obsolescence. R D $16.95 www.igpub.com NakedSocietyCover.indd 1 3/5/14 11:24 AM The Naked Society The Naked Society Vance Packard Introduction by Rick Perlstein Brooklyn, New York Copyright © 1964 by Vance Packard. Introduction Copyright © 2014 by Rick Perlstein. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission of the publisher. Please direct inquires to: Ig Publishing 392 Clinton Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11238 www.igpub.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Packard, Vance, 1914-1996. The naked society / Vance Packard ; [introduction by] Rick Perlstein. pages cm Originally published: New York : David McKay, 1964. ISBN 978-1-935439-86-8 (ebook) 1. Liberty. 2. Privacy, Right of--United States. 3. Freedom. 4. Pri- vacy, Right of. I. Title. JC599.U5P36 2013 323.4’90973--dc23 2013020662 To Harriet F. Pilpel with admiration and gratitude CONTENTS Introduction by Rick Perlstein...................................9 Part I: The Mounting Surveillance 1. The Individual at Bay............................................................33 2. Five Forces Undermining Our Privacy...............................44 Part II: Some Specific Areas of Assault 3. How To Strip a Job-Seeker Naked.......................................73 4. The Hidden Eyes of Business...............................................97 5. Where Is All The Distrust of Jobholders Leading?........113 6. The Very Public Lives of Public Servants........................123 7. The Watch Over The Teachers..........................................135 8. Are We Conditioning Students To Police State Tactics..146 9. How Safe Is Thy Castle?.....................................................164 10. The Unlisted Price of Financial Protection...............183 11. The Lively Traffic In Facts About Us............................196 Part III: Assaults On Traditional Rights Of Free Citizens 12. The Right To A Private, Unfettered Life.....................216 13. The Right To Have Unfashionable Opinions................236 14. The Right To Be Free of Police Mistreatment............257 15. The Right To Be Free of Bureacratic Harrassment....270 16. The Right To Be Free of Mind Manipulation..............287 Part IV: If Personal Liberty Is To Be Sustained 17. The Bill Of Rights Under Siege.....................................299 18. What We Can Do To Protect Ourselves......................326 Reference Notes......................................................................340 Appendix: The Bill of Rights.................................................346 Acknowledgments....................................................................348 INTRODUCTION There is nothing worse than dated social criticism. So when the good folks at Ig Publishing invited me to write this introduc- tion, my initial reaction was skepticism. What could a jeremiad about the epidemic of Americans spying on one another, pub- lished in 1964—thirty years before the invention of the Internet, thirty-seven years before 9/11, written in an age when the grav- est insults to civil liberties consisted of congressional committees asking “Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party”—have to say to us now? I picked up an ancient paperback copy of The Naked Soci- ety (“The explosive facts behind the hidden campaign to deprive Americans of their rights to privacy. Here’s how snoop devices are being employed by Big Government, Big Business, and Big Educaiton in their sneak attack on YOU.”). I began reading. I was in New York City—Penn Station, to be exact. I read Packard’s framing questions: “Are there loose in our modern world forc- es that threaten to annihilate everybody’s privacy? And if such forces are indeed loose, are they establishing the preconditions of totalitarianism that could endanger the personal freedom of modern man?” As I read this, I happened to notice a TV screen. Horrifying, apocalyptic images of buildings collapsing and shad- owy terrorists alternated with messages like, “If you see anything suspicious report it to an Amtrak employee.” And, “It’s nothing, you think. Can you be sure?” After all: “It doesn’t hurt to be alert.” I began reading with renewed, then steadily mounting, inter- est, my mind buzzing as the parallels between then and now pre- 9
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