What many are THINKING about the Apple/FBI issue, but no one is SAYING (but should).
I’m as patriotic as the next person. I love my country, and I hate when random and seemingly senseless acts of terrorism disrupt our way of life (in many cases, I think that was the point of the violent act).
But I also love my privacy.
What I love even more over my privacy is the belief that I have some control over who does and does not have access to my personal thoughts, notes, dealings, GPS destinations, photos, drafts, SMS messages, etc. If I haven’t done anything bad to warrant someone snooping through my lifeline (and let’s face it, many of our smartphones are tethered to us with critical components that make life easier or can wreak havoc on our world, or “lifeline”), then I don’t want anyone or any agency randomly accessing it on someone’s whim.
All bet’s are off when you do something bad and vital information is needed in order to help piece the puzzle together of who you are, what you did, why, and who may have assisted you. But this post isn’t about the debate on whether Apple should or shouldn’t create or pass along a master hack that can break into the San Bernadino shooter’s iPhone. This post gives voice to what many are thinking but aren’t saying.
It isn’t being said by many people, and I’m not sure why it isn’t in this age of increasing transparency and accountability.
Our government is having a trust crisis.
There, I wrote it. Phew! For a split second there, I was having anxiety about whether or not it would ruin my future or cause me to have to give up my first-born for writing such a thing about our government. And I think that’s part of the problem.
Very few want to talk about that elephant in the room, as if it makes it any less real. Do you remember what it felt like when you learned that your parents were lying to you about there being a Santa Claus? Of course you don’t, but do you remember what it felt like when a friend or partner betrayed you and didn’t give you a satisfactory explanation or one at all?
Bear with me for a moment while I remind you how frustrating it was to hear the phrase “because I said so” from your parent or guardian. Anyone who is a parent realizes that sometimes it’s just necessary to summon that phrase from the bowels of our existence and use it in order to shut down the inquiry so that it doesn’t gain any more traction with our kid. My point, and I do have one, is that it doesn’t feel good to be told that. It feels even worse when it’s said by someone who has had visible problems in the integrity department.
It’s been all over the news here recently in DC about the FBI crime lab blunders that led to innocent men being sent to prison for decades (and then exonerated and compensated in the millions). Gallup polls have consistently shown for years (okay, decades) that citizen trust in government continues to register at embarrassingly stinky percentages . And there would just be no way to link to even half of the stories of the past (let’s say two) years that depicted government fraud and corruption. There are too many of them, and I doubt anyone needs proof from that spoiled pudding.
I’m not saying that I’m going to vote for him, but it speaks volumes that Donald Trump is doing as well as he is in the primaries. And I’m just not surprised. Waves of people have grown disillusioned with “the way it’s always been done” as they’ve read the stories revealing how it isn’t and hasn’t been working (correctly and fairly). They want meaningful change to happen, and in their lifetime. They care less about promises, because they know the wide gulf that can exist between one’s words and actions.
Accountability has done a real tap-dance on the promises made by some folks.
And I write this more suredly this time: our government has a trust problem.
Simply saying that, “we just want the decryption key to use for this one phone but we promise we won’t use it for any other purpose than unlocking that one phone”, sounds great on the surface. But when said by a party that has a trust crisis surrounding it, it sounds more like “bleh, bleh-bleh”. (Love that from Adam Sandler’s Dracula character , in the movie Hotel Transylvania, and it fits here ☺).
Viable businesses that have been around for any significant period of time have learned the same lesson that anyone who has had their trust taken advantage of:
It’s hard to trust someone the second time around after they’ve already given you a reason not to trust them.
That takes WORK and sincere EFFORT. What doesn’t work is any variety or form of because I said so.
The government has a real opportunity here to use this issue to build trust rather than further eroding it. While it was great that the FBI director finally spilled the tea about the “error” made in requesting the cloud reset of the iPhone in question, that information came too little too late.
It doesn’t go over well when you’ve made a mistake, don’t admit it, and then proceed to force someone to help you clean up what is YOUR mess (in that order). Can you imagine the compassion that could have been garnered had the order of those events been changed?
We will never know now, because a judgment call was made to proceed like a bull through the china cabinet.
A friend of mine says this all the time:
Tell the truth, or someone else will tell it for you.
Leading with the truth cuts out those costs and penalties that come with being less than honest. This is so with all relationships. I don’t know why people think this works any differently in business or government. They too involve relationship(s).
Government can learn a little something about trust and engagement from business. Cuz, no matter what anyone says about one being totally different than the other, there is one thing that makes it completely and totally relevant to goverment: THE PEOPLE. (that includes the citizens and the government workers, who are also citizens).
If you want us to be patriotic, to care, and be engaged…then learn and conduct yourselves in ways that actually lead to engagement with us. Somewhere along the line, that got seriously bungled. Please, no comments that it’s a “party thing”, because it’s not…it’s a human thing. And there shouldn’t have to be an Executive Order or umpteen committees and task forces formed to get things back on track.
There’s a great movie called “Dave” starring Kevin Kline that has this great scene where the President and cabinet are discussing the budget. Not wishing to deliver spoilers for those who haven’t had the pleasure, I will simply write that Kline presidential impersonator character calls in his trusted accountant friend (Charles Grodin) to cut right through the B.S. and a balanced budget emerges.
As a friend of mine is famous for saying…
Some things are really simple, but we insist on making them complicated.
Actions that lead to trust are not and should not be made complicated. Oops, I suppose that’s MY “because i said so”. But do you agree?
This is my first post on Medium. Sorry i only have only two images, but I have the “white space” writing tip covered (i hope). You have so much power, did you know that? If you liked what I wrote, show me by clicking that green thingy. And follow me if you really want to show me some love. No shame in my game…i hold a sign up that reads “Will Write For Praise”!
