I must say that we live in a golden age. This is the best time to be alive. Why? Because we have access to almost all information in the world. There is virtually no limit to what we can find out about everything.
People have documented individuals and events for a long time. For posterity I guess. They felt the need to write down everything they considered necessary. That’s how history is known to us. Because of someone, a long time ago, decided that it’s a good idea to record it in writing. As kids in school, we hated that, but as an adult, we can appreciate the importance of it.
Since the first story recorded and our days, many years have passed. Now we have everything at our disposal just a push of the button away. The Internet has revolutionized the ways of learning. Not only that people know more, but they are also able to do more stuff because of it. Sharing information on anything has become a regular thing. I am not sure if you think about it, but I believe that this simple act of getting information with ease is just simply amazing in its complexity.
The freedom of information in its real state is something easy to gain. Nobody is forbidden to read about alpacas, for example. But what of sensitive information? And I don’t mean top secret government stuff. Things like a criminal history of a person should be available. As you may well know, trust is something rare to find today, so why not disclose such information. That kind of information may lead to one less victim perhaps.
Sensitive information is somewhat protected to respect some terms of confidentiality of the perpetrators. Really? That’s what you need to protect? Yes, the government offers free public records and whatnot, but it’s not enough. They don’t cover what’s most important. If I have suspicions about someone, I don’t care if he’s married or has not paid child support in eight months. I want to know who he is and what he has done. Not necessarily a man, it can easily be a woman. We don’t discriminate.
I don’t want to open a discussion about government transparency because it’s pointless. We will never know what they don’t want us to find out. Fortunately, at times, some people really value the importance of the freedom of information. With this idea in mind, they disclose documents which are never to be published. Usually, they reveal things that shouldn’t happen, of course.
The conclusion is that we have to settle for the free public records, for now. Only conducting a background check will reveal what we want to know about a person or organization. They can sometimes be expensive, so we stay put. It’s not like we can have a choice. But instead of thinking about the things we are not allowed to know, let’s just appreciate all the information we can access. After all, that’s where the most interest lies.
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