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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 10, 2001)
^Jay, July 10, 2001 PINION THE BATTALION his rate applies additional 5 end to quai aterialism leads to early life crisis fc^Wj-WIRE) — You may ' sale, maiesv^ave heard of or witnessed h r^o,? 111 crisis of count- p—-^less forty-somethings, hut Occasional‘I’ll bet you haven’t heard ars. Brazos* abjout the new trend in nerv- ous breakdowns that may 7/9/01 272- : a ’'f’ ait; y ou in your immediate s Blue-ey M :P 0St - Colle ? e y ears: the Si95. 979-Huarterlife crisis.” Despite the slogans you Har from professors and etines for at pt rabies aneri 2bth, new Ik $350+ 1/3 backyard, o i-8952. ASAP, 3bd~. Bbills. Almee ). is-mtn. from about “economic op- ■^■■■■■flirtunities” and “living in best of times,” many ie for HOfli y Clu ng adults fresh out of ck out this 4t»; college are hitting one ot the ‘S.e b s ar ta:H ost depressing moments of s Robies, cs= their lives at earlier ages, leaity. Betty| A J une 25 New York Times >735 or tAled “Is This the of a Midlife Crisis?” ex- ATES {lores'the lives of many indi- niies from^Bduals in their late 20s to bie modem iBirly 30s. These people • Mraduated from Ivy League jhools and established ■lemselves as successful citi zens and major players in the llobal corporate market with ■x-digit salaries. I Yet as the article points lut, many of these successful people are beginning to ques tion the direction of their dives and even the point of heir existence. It describes ivhat people are now calling he “quarterlife crisis.” The quarterlife crisis is lasically a midlife crisis ex- Berienced at an early age like 8. Usually, when people hink of the midlife crisis, Jthe “American Beauty” im age of a sedated Kevin [Spacey sitting in his.yail ,cell- like ^ubitle at work of a frantic Annette Banning breaking down because she Failed to make a real-estate ale may immediately come to mind. I But hardly anyone expects fo find thefnselves faced with he.prospect of an unfulfill- eded, 3Mm® ihomes. S40C': 255-6885. August irof-: i30/mo. +1. ! 3 " ntemet. 973# 'F, 3bd/2bltiW| -nished excest" rd, Paul822 ! ie I for 4c* +utilities, 1*t call Josb 83i ,; share 3WrS lley, Wcr* $3<xm 3ES Driving. Lds-O' et dismissal^'' T(6pm-9pm). *■ ,t.- Fri(6pm-87 Sat(8am-2:30f(f: Walk-ins w| st price allowsdlfr 9.2 1 7. 846-6r' |ng life at what is supposed (CP-0017). t () {^g fi-jg crux of their q^p^Hgood-timing” 20s. i 695-9193, Bn': 'What can explain such a i peer Counse« contradiction? customers tomevs buy. N 69 a WYiile there is probably Hnore than one answer to this question, I believe that the Btructure of.jjDiversity life and Society’s expectations of young adults help to set the onditions for the quarterlife risis. The money-driven mentality that pervades insti- Butions of higher learning — ■specially prestigious ones — diverts people’s attention ( from reflecting upon their Bpwn lives cii id asking the fun- famental question, “Am I happy?” I From the beginning of ! grade school, many of us have been expected to strive ||or the best grades and par ticipate in the most extracur ricular activities so that we ■an build up our resume to get into the top colleges. I Afterward, once we are admitted into a world- renowned university, we are uncritically taught to work toward law school, medical school, business school or to get hired by a major firm or company where we can make lots of money, settle down in a suburb and have 1.2 kids. 1 But amid all of this drive to succeed and this blind am bition, we may find ourselves .without the time to stop and really ask whether or not we feel fulfilled. Consequently, The conflicts that are avoided during college re-emerge once more. I Yet what can explain the Bict that the nervous break down takes place at an earli er age than the midlife crisis? ■his can £gain be attributed to the unique time that we find ourselves in. The expec tation that we follow the standard path of “success” is a lot stronger than ever. Our society’s paragons of virtue are not human and civil rights fighters like A. Philip Randolph, Philip Vera Cruz or Dolores Huerta, but corporate leaders like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Everyday, people pay fi nancial worship to multina tional corporations such as Wal-Mart, McDonald’s and Nike. Many of us have been so cialized to dream that we may one day hold positions of financial power that ex pand beyond U.S. borders. The dream of becoming cor porate giants with multiple investments, four different houses, a yacht and a Ferrari F3 5 5 has never been stronger. I believe that Beyonce Knowles of Destiny’s Child said it best in an MTV inter view, “I’m young, I want a certain amount of money and by the time I’m 30, 1 don’t want to work.” With popular stars making such statements, it is no wonder that children learn to pursue individual monetary interests at early ages. The pressure and the ex pectation to become finan cially well-off has led stu dents to pursue material and monetary satisfaction with out developing any sense of critical understanding or compassion. A college edu cation simply becomes a means to an end, rather than an end itself, where students question the realities they have been presented with and critically examine their own lives. Like, heartless robots, we are expected to program our future for the next 10 years and go about our day-to-day lives toward some goal that has been outlined for us. We become more and more alienated from our commu nities and even our class mates. Students no longer are people with their own unique experiences and per sonalities; instead, they too are only used as study bud dies, or represent mere com petition to be defeated. It is this lack of human compassion and increased alienation that has helped to contribute to people’s quar terlife crisis. In the search for the holy grail of fortune, we lose our ability to feel for others, especially those who have been oppressed. Without that compassion, our lives become devoid of love. The fact is that in our times of extreme individual ism, the connection with our community gets broken and we end up forgetting to stop and appreciate the beauty that surrounds us. Many of us, in our desire to “succeed,” avoid conflict and select the easiest road where we’ll meet the least resistance. But we must strive to not lose contract with that human compassion that provides us with com fort and fulfillment. Otherwise, we will find ourselves becoming slaves to our own success. The cars, jewelry and mansions that we consume will end up con suming us. We will find our selves in a quarterlife crisis going mad. Now is the best time to question yourself and your reality. Jonah Lalas Daily Bruin UCLA Brother is here Face recognition technology violates rights CHAD MALLAM/Twe Battalion T he Tampa Bay City Council should be com mended for revising its initial decision and making efforts to stop the implementation of face recognition tech nology (biometric identification cameras) in its city. On May 10, the Tampa Bay City Coun cil approved a system of 36 cameras to be mounted in the Ybor City entertainment district, which has as many as 150,000 visi tors during a weekend. The cameras were set up free of charge by the VTsionics Cor poration as an example to other cities of what their FACEit technology is capable of to try to attract more business. After the approval and implementation of the system, the council claims it had no Using biometric technolo gy to identify every person as a criminal or not is a violation of the basic rights the United States T was built upon. idea of the outcry from the public against the usq of the face recognition system. The decision by the council to approve the project was based on some of the bene fits that the system provides. In the London borough of Newham, where the exact same system is in place, city officials associate the cameras with a decline in crime in the areas where they are installed. This has led officials in Ice land’s Keflavik Airport to adopt the same technology. Similar recognition devices are used in casinos. They are used to spot cheaters and others who are consistently trying to beat the odds. Furthermore, the system acts as a po lice officer on the street with about 30,000 pictures of people who are wanted by the Tampa Bay Police Department. This means that the city can essentially have a police officer on every corner looking for criminals 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In spite of possible advantages of the system, the members of the city council have demanded that there be another vote in order to terminate the contract with FACEit maker Visionics. This decision mainly has come about because of the legal issues that would arise from implementing such a system in the United States. The major concern is that face identification technology use by the police violates the Fourth Amendment, which protects all citizens against unrea sonable searches and seizures. Oakland, Calif., considered using a sim ilar type of surveillance technology in 1997, but after protests from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and on the advice of the city attorney, the city decided not to implement the system. A similar type of technology made by Graphco Technologies was used in Tampa Bay for Super Bowl XXXV. The system proved somewhat unsuccessful. Although it identified 19 offenders in the crowd of 72,920, none of them were apprehended because the large number of people at tending and the architecture of the Ray mond James Stadium made it difficult to locate the offenders. There are also fears from the ACLU and other civil liberties groups that in stalling this technology in Ybor City will be a foot in the door for more intrusive technology that could result in George Orwell’s Big Brother coming to life. This is indeed possible, considering that in 1999 Illinois became the first state to enter all driver’s license pictures into a database that will soon grow to over 20 million people. The combination of a database of every citizen and biometric technology certainly brings Orwell’s vision of the future closer to reality. Those who do support police using such technology say that they do not mind being watched, because their safety against criminals is increased in the end. However, Benjamin Franklin said, “They that can give up essential liberty to ob tain a little temporary safety deserve nei ther liberty nor safety.” Using biometric technology to identify every person as a criminal or not is a viola tion of the basic rights the United States was built on. The decision of the Tampa Bay City Council to attempt to cancel the surveillance contract with Visionics is a sound one, and should be followed by oth er cities considering similar contracts. Reid Bader is a junior political science major. CARTOON OF THE DAY 'IUs Rtec>N vsT (S>