We seem to live in an age now where not only are we (the average citizen) not taken at our word but even the most common methods of confirming what we say are no longer considered acceptable. More than once I have been told by people who used their driver's license to cash checks that a state issued ID is not accepted by them unless they also submit to a thumbprint as well. Never mind that this is actually illegal in many states, the banks that require this know that almost everybody will bend over and sacrificed their personal identity so they can get what is rightfully theirs. I have also noticed that the greatest scrutiny is applied to the most everyday events, cameras on street corners, cameras at checkout lines, but the supposedly public events like supreme court hearings are given a curtain of secrecy that none of us can enjoy.

There is a reason for this, and a reason for why it has happened increasingly in the last couple decades. No it is not the more wide availability of this technology, though this has helped to greatly justify it's application. The most basic reason is that in earlier times when most of the people at the top were merely out to make a profit, we now have a new generation who have added "by any means necessary" to that policy. When you have met criminals, con men and other flavors of thieves, you can spot one very common trait - they trust nobody. People tend to view the world from the prism of their own mindset, and when you believe that people only exist solely so you steal from them, you believe that everybody is out to get you too. As these people have come to dominate the corporate world, this paranoia (coupled with cheaper surveillance technology) has created a master class of people who will assume you are not a customer, but a potential shop lifter. You are not a person wanting to make a deposit or withdrawal, you are a identity thief who is trying to take their money.

The funny truth is, we live in an era when most crime is going down. Do not believe the paranoids though, their efforts make at best a immeasurably small impact. The reality is not that crimes are being stopped as they simply aren't happening, largely due to completely unrelated causes, such as keeping violent criminals in jail longer, the cheapening of goods that at one time were worth stealing, and even social issues like abortion. The result is, the primary criminal class now... are the paranoid criminals who run the major corporations.