Privacy

The great
Self-delusion
Of our cyber age
Is privacy.
Nothing is more
Sacrosanct and
Nothing is more
Impossible to obtain.
Everything we have
Ever written or shared
Or commented on or
That was quoted is on
The web and accessible
To anyone who chooses
To dig to find it.
Web privacy is
An illusion of minds
Happier with pen and paper.
And even those simpler
Methods were not safe
From prying eyes.
Churchill once said that
In wartime the truth was
So precious it required
A bodyguard of lies,
Even so …
With our own lives.
Yet no bodyguard is
Proof against detection.
We must be the amalgam
Of all we say and do,
And all said and
Done about us,
And lift our heads
And be proud
Of ourselves.
Marcus Aurelius said,
If it is not right,
Do not do it,
If it is not true,
Do not say it.
Even so …