The voice of De Anza since 1967.

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The voice of De Anza since 1967.

La Voz News

The voice of De Anza since 1967.

La Voz News

    As The World Burns

    I am not a number!

    “I am not a number! I am a free man,” proclaimed Patrick McGoohan, as “No. 6,” in the 1967 show, “The Prisoner.” This timeless quote was proclaimed to television audiences once again by Jim Caviezal in AMC Entertainment’s 2009 remake. Both the classic and the remake bring up an issue that most people have failed to notice: numeric labeling replacing human identity.

    All Americans are given a Social Security number at birth or when they become citizens of the state. The original purpose was that every citizen would qualify for state benefits once they have become a certain age, suffer from a disability or are temporarily unemployed and in need of some finicial assistance. Yet it appears people are using their Social Security number for more than the benefits they are supposed to provide.

    No person in the state is eligible for anything unless they provide a Social Security number. Every time one has to complete any kind of important application, we always have to provide our Social Security number. Losing or having the number stolen is basically having one’s own life stolen. This is the value that the number has been given over one’s own humanity. ###-##-### is replacing your name.

    Even at De Anza, a student’s identity has begun to replace a student’s name. In a class from 30 to 100, a student has become less of a person and more of a statistic. Rarely do students write their name on any document; instead, they have to provide their ID number. To the instructor, the student has, in a way, become nobody.

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    Then there is one’s place of employment. Even here, one is barred from using one’s own name and is forced to become a number among a collection of other numbers. What ever happened to clocking in by your name? Now it appears that one has to clock in as ###-###. As a result, your name has no value to management, allowing them to mold you into a character of corporate culture. Consider this as a tool for your employer to censor your personality.

    Some might not recognize this as a problem, but feel the number system is a proper way to truly identify individuals without risk of being influenced by their nature. This may feel fine at first, but when a number is who you are, then one has truly lost what he or she is. Your name is who you are; your character is associated with the name. The name is what gives you mobility to be a ?free person.

    How long will you live your lives as a number before you confront your professor or employer and proclaim to them “I am not a number! I am a free man!” Will they agree with your realization or will they just remind you that “You only think you’re free?”

    The price of human organization is the censorship of our name and our personality. As one watches his or her character censored in the world of life, the only option in the end is to sit back and watch the world burn.

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