The Digital Era 3

9Epilogue: Security Delusion or Scandinavian Common Sense?

Intimately linked to our earthly existence, knocks of fate have been, over our long history, considered as a manifestation of the Devil, or even as a test imposed by God. In modern times, these beliefs have been replaced by a rational vision of the world and of the catastrophes that affect us. Rationally speaking, our secularized democracies should therefore no longer be passive or fatalistic in the face of nature’s whims (such as volcanic explosions or tsunamis) or the destructive rage of men, whose attacks in history have been horrible, but recurring.

And yet, the public policies induced by terrorism have been disrupting our comfort (and our freedoms) since 2001, the base year of the resurgence of security concerns in Western public policy. These policies impinge on freedoms that we thought were well established since the end of the open wars and shadow wars that marked the 20th century¹. Our hopes were undoubtedly naïve because, with the support of digital technologies, we are once again experiencing multiple obstacles to the movement of people, goods and capital. Thus, a careful surveillance of the population, of its movements and its acts has been re-established, which, while wanting to be unobtrusive, leads to perverse effects that are regularly highlighted by the daily newspaper².

At the same time, a significant part of the exchanges between men (exchanges of money, messages or services) are also screened by analytical ...