All the best lists
I occasionally twit Mano Singham for leftism. But he's spot on here. If you aren't on some government list somewhere, you aren't doing your job.
As a matter of strategy, I'm not sure it's worthwile to get on as many lists as possible. Surveillance is expensive, after all, so why give them more reason to tax us to spy? On the other hand, enough spying can lead to the collapse of the system. It didn't help the East Germans that a quarter of the population was working for the Stasi. Ignoring the government's list-making and getting on with life is probably best. This also means not volunteering information for lists. That's hard to do nowadays, with employers increasingly becoming an enforcement arm of the state (can you say "fascism"?). Case demands my socialist insecurity number and takes Danegeld out before I see it, just like any employer. At least they aren't using it as a library ID number any more. And I don't use it any more than I absolutely have to. Nor do I co-operate with private snoops. "What's your zip code?" the cashier asks as I hand her CASH. "99999" I answer...she blinks, but they don't pay her enough to argue. And they don't pay me to do their marketing research.
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