The Processed Life

This Post Is Rated: N for Nothing to hide... yada yada. Warning: More commentary on our total lack of discretion and humanity in today's culture. I'm aware that I'm going to reference another 'old' news item now but I'm just catching up with some of my saved rss feeds and occasionally I come across an item that is worth my comment but I'm too busy to compile something at the time. Last month the BBC reported that, now, even the police are fed up of the target culture. The list of compiled cases showed incidents where officers had been "under such pressure to deliver it has resulted in an arrest or caution when even the officer themselves thinks it is ludicrous", he said. "Understandably, when the public hears about this they ask 'What the hell is going on?'." Of course those who read police bloggers will not be surprised, but what people should be realising is that it's part of a much wider cultural endemic that has been going on for some time. We no longer know how to relate as human beings. We may even empathise with our victims customers' personal situation, in the knowledge that we are making decisions that will deeply affect their circumstances, but there seems to be no will to to try and break the cogs of this giant machinery that is called 'authorisation'. How many times have you heard the words to the effect of "Yes, I understand, but I'm sorry sir I cannot do that as I don't have the authorisation" or "I'm sorry I have to process this now, I can't stop it". What they actually mean is: "I can stop it, but if something goes wrong, it will be my head on the block, or I am financially disincentivised to do anything to help you". I'm glad the police are concerned, we should all be. We are moving towards, nay, already in a society that sees people as assets to be put in boxes and processed. If someone doesn't fit into the box, discard them or fail them. Why should we be concerned? Let me give you an example from my own life, You may already be aware of the trouble I had with TalkTalk at the beginning of the year. I ended up cancelling their contract to go with Pipex in February. Today I received the 3rd 'Final Demand' for money on an account that should have been closed 4 months ago (2 phone calls, 1 letter). This is no longer a human looking at the details and realising the error of their ways, this is a machine, that has not been given the right instruction and without intervention, followed through to logical conclusion will pass this onto a debt collection service. I don't trust those who currently stand for authority, not until I can see an example of a person or organization who can utilise technology responsibly, and not rely on it to cost cut human decisions over human lives. To slightly modify an old mantra used on this site: Databases exist to for people, people do not exist for databases. DISCUSS THIS POST (REGISTRATION FREE) Technorati Tags: checkbox culture, database culture, big brother, predatory systems, customer service, target culture