Author: Yuval Noah Harari | The Financial Times | Published 20 March 2020
Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari writes that ” [i]n this time of crisis, we face two particularly important choices. The first is between totalitarian surveillance and citizen empowerment. The second is between nationalist isolation and global solidarity.”
Professor Harari thoughtfully examines the issues around the rush to put in place technological surveillance-based responses to COVID-19 pandemic management, and governments’ pivot to nationalistic solutions to problems which are essentially global in nature.
Asking people to choose between privacy and health is, in fact, the very root of the problem. Because this is a false choice. We can and should enjoy both privacy and health. We can choose to protect our health and stop the coronavirus epidemic not by instituting totalitarian surveillance regimes, but rather by empowering citizens.
A counterpoint to the argument that we must consider unpalatable options because “there is no alternative”.
Read the full article (external link to Financial Times – free-to-read article)
