^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-
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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
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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
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