6. Privacy & Cookie Policies
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Obviously, if you´ve read the previous pages, you´ll know we have no Privacy or Cookie Policies – and to be direct, if by now, you feel we should – then probably this ´work´ is not for you…
But those of you who are following me out onto Rumi´s “field beyond right and wrong” might be wondering – “yes, but what does Blind Cupid have to say about Privacy and Cookie Policies?!”
Well….
The story goes like this…
“I´d got myself in a tangle looking at Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy Templates for the website. Despite some help I´d had from a friend who´d patiently unpicked ´caveat emptors´ and ´force majeures´ for me – I couldn´t make head or tail of them. I felt like a fish in a net of words – or a leg, trapped in a fishnet stocking.
And so it was that, eventually, I asked for help. “Dearmost Blind Cupid” I prayed, “I have been studying Privacy and Cookie Policies for the website, and I am floundering! Blind Cupid – I feel all caught up in word ropes…”
“Oh dear!” Blind Cupid exclaims, wryly, as he/she/it appears beside me – a huge, simian apparition. “The great Mechanical Law Monsters are back!” And as he/she/it says these words – instantly – I KNOW… I am infused with knowledge… my consciousness expands.. I SEE: Terms and Conditions, Privacy Polices, Cookies Policies – it´s all The Same Shit! And I say this colloquially only – because, of course, faeces are actually marvellous stuff – compostable, nutritive and full of life…
“Mark, they got you, in the end!” Blind Cupid grins. “But it´s illegal to not have a Privacy Policy, Blind Cupid! It´s illegal to trust the heart!” I say with a slight whine – as if not quite convinced of our Revolution of the Heart.
“Legal Shmeagol!” exclaims Blind Cupid, in a Jewish accent, with the sweeping confidence of a Gandalf… “Legality seems to have such authority among you, and the heart – so little! But what declaration of war, what invasion, what persecution, what atrocity, what massacre, what genocide – was not considered legal, or declared legal, or voted legal, by its perpetrators? Yet, still – such respect for the law!”
“I agree!” I exclaim, my head above the clouds of my mind once again, “SO WHAT if something is legal?! SO WHAT if it isn´t?! What does it matter?! It´s an irrelevant criterion! What matters is how we look upon each other – our heart´s capacity for respect. What matters is our respect for our differences – and our capacity for empathy. What matters is our capacity for awareness and introspection, and our willingness to be honest. What matters is our sensitivity to the Mystery of Life and Death – unfettered by beliefs. Relationships can´t be reduced to moral formulas. Authenticity isn´t determined by laws and bylaws. Respect is not about rules…. “
“Yes, Mark! Yes!” says Blind Cupid, interrupting me, vigorously “and are you aware that these words of yours cut to the core of the challenge now facing humanity? Do you understand that today´s technocratic leaders-and-led want to drain beauty from the world, and empty the heart, and codify and control – everything!?”
