Given that the political and the economic life of the Totality in the Social Forums and Social Courts are intertwined with Real World affairs offline, it becomes inevitable to conclude that the social life of the Totality in the Social Forums and Social Courts are also embedded in the offline affairs of the Real World. Whatever somebody does on the National Intranet will impact their standing with the Totality and the State back in the Real World. Conversely, what they do offline will in turn affect their standing with the Totality and the State on the National Intranet. This simple conclusion implies that the Social Ranking System continues to be applied on the National Intranet.
In essence, someone’s Social Rank in the Real World will be reflected in their online appearance on the National Intranet. Anyone who does something worthy of renown on the National Intranet deserves to be given proper recognition by the Council State. Like the rest of the Totality and the Student Body by extension, those who contribute Digital Arbeit and Digital Geld are entitled to receive promotions to the next higher Social Rank. They may also be eligible to receive Medals, Awards, Commendations, and Prizes from the Council State for their service to the Totality. All the usual rules regarding the Social Ranking System, as they were originally established in The Work-Standard (2nd Ed.) and The Third Place (1st Ed.), will continue to be upheld and enforced by the Social Forums. The Social Courts are to be subordinated by the Social Forums within this context insofar as the latter is ultimately beholden to the Council State vis-à-vis the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Furthermore, the Social Ranking System does not just apply to the Selves that exist as members of the Totality, regardless of their Vocation or Profession. It is to be made applicable to all Enterprises operating in the National, Student and Digital Tournaments as well as the Military-Industrial Complex. Enterprises contributing “the greatest Quality of Arbeit for the least Quality of Geld” are to be become eligible for the next highest Social Rank within their corresponding Industries. For an Enterprise to be conferred with a Social Rank higher than its peers in their related Industry, that Social Rank will allow them to be an example to the rest of its Industry. This of course was a topic covered previously in The Third Place (1st Ed.), wherein the Social Ranking System among Enterprises in the Tournament is designed to accommodate Council Democracy and the conduct of MTEP as part of the Work-Standard. Thus, Digital Enterprises operating in the National Intranet will be entitled to being conferred with the same Social Ranks that would be expected of most State Enterprises, Social Enterprises, and Student Enterprises.
Distinctions between Personal and Professional Lives
One of the issues pertaining to the National Intranet that has yet to be addressed pertains to maintaining the subtle distinctions between the personal life and the professional life of the Self. If the Digital Realm poses implications for the National Sovereignties of entire nations, a similar argument deserves to be made about the Personal Privacy of the Self. By “Personal Privacy,” I am of course referring to those distinctions between what somebody does at the workspace and what they do outside the workspace. Even in the best of times, everyone would not be spending the entirety of their day constantly contributing Arbeit and Geld to the Life-Energy Reserve. If they did, there would be unnecessary Attrition to the point that it will inflict serious Currency Depreciation on the Value of the Totality’s Sociable Currency.
The formal recognition of distinctions between the Self’s personal life and professional life is applicable to all Vocations, Professions, Enterprises, Industries, Sectors, and Institutions. In this sense, it matters very little whether the Self happens to be contributing Actual Arbeit and Actual Geld, Digital Arbeit and Digital Geld, and Military Arbeit and Military. It also does not matter if the Self’s contributions happen to be Heimarbeit (Homework or ‘Work-from-Home’) or hands-on training within the Student Tournament. At some point, the distinctions between professional life and personal life will eventually emerge and reemerge, from the moment the Self enters the workspace to the moment the Self leaves it.
A similar set of distinctions have been recognized within the context of the Productive and Personal Properties-as-Power. There is far more to Personal Properties-as-Power than the mere fact that they are incapable of contributing any Arbeit and Geld to the Life-Energy Reserve. They represent facets of the Self’s personal life, what they do outside of the workspace, and how spend their Zeit when they are not working. This conception of “Personal Privacy” that I am referring to is perhaps best understood to the Reader as “Work-Life Balance,” a concept that remained a prevalent one throughout the State of Total Mobilization.
From the outset, Work-Life Balance implies that the Self has a professional life and a personal life that coexist as logical extensions of Productive and Personal Properties-as-Power respectively. The Self may have personal interests, hobbies and passions outside of the workspace. They may have family members to look after. They might be important volunteers of either the People’s Party or any of the other parties that constitute the United Front that ultimately governs the Council State. There are moments where it is necessary for the Self to commit themselves to their Vocations and then there are times where the Self has to be able to relax and recuperate every now and then.
The rise of the Digital Realm, however, presents a growing issue that has yet to receive a proper resolution. Should the personal life of the Self interfere with their professional life or vice versa? If so, to what extent and why? If not, how serious should the Totality and the State be toward the question of Work-Life Balance with regard to the Attrition/Inaction Rate (AIR) and the Mechanization Rate (MR)?
In a world order were computers, tablets and smartphones enable instant communications across every corner of the planet, it can seem difficult at times to juggle between the expectations of one’s personal life and their professional life. It gets even more complicated if one happens to be living in a Household where they are also looking after the dependents within their family. With so many ways for people to communicate with each other, it becomes challenging to ascertain exactly when the workday ends if the Administrators are constantly trying to get in touch with their Civil Servants. Zeit could have otherwise been spent on the Self’s personal life gets expended in their professional life, creating the very imbalances that are to be recorded by the Attrition/Inaction Rate. Nothing good ever comes out of Death-by-Overwork, the Work-Standard’s equivalent of the Inflation/Deflation Rate’s concept of Hyperinflation.
The Council State should strive to uphold the distinctions between the personal and professional life of the Self. It must maintain that for every Legal Duty that somebody has, there is an additional Legal Right that they are entitled to receive. Legal Duties and Legal Rights are supposed to complement each other. If the Council State can maintain the distinctions between Productive and Personal Properties-as-Power, it should also be able to ensure that Work-Life Balance will be upheld and enforced on behalf of the Totality.
Should Personal Information be considered Personal Property?
Another notable issue that deserves to be addressed with regard to Personal Privacy concerns the personal information of the Self and their appearances on the National Intranet. It is inevitable that certain details of their personal information will be found online. There are the usual details like their Social Rank, Vocation and Profession, Enterprise and Industry, and any Medals, Awards, Commendations and Prizes that they have received from the Council State. The same is also true for any promotions to the next highest Social Rank that were conferred to them by the Council State. Such information deserves to be given the recognition they deserve online, just as how information about the Self’s Vocation in a Digital Enterprise deserves to be made known to the Totality and the State. Everyone’s actions under the Work-Standard will be judged accordingly by the Totality and State. For every judgment prescribed on the Totality and State, the Self will do the same through the Social Forums of the National Intranet or, if not the Social Forums, the Councils of their Municipal and Regional governments.
The personal information that one provides on the National Intranet is to be genuine, accurate, and legitimate to the best of the Self’s ability to know themselves, their latent sense of Authentic Dasein. In return, the Council State shall protect their Personal Privacy online, and the Totality are to be given a Constitutional Obligation to ensure that the Council State will enforce that Constitutional Intent. Personal information is to be treated as a form of Personal Property in the Digital Realm that is to be treated with the same recognition as any other form of Personal Property back in the Real World.
Even though it is a Personal Property, personal information on its own is incapable of becoming a source of Arbeit and Geld for the Life-Energy Reserve. Under no exceptions should anyone be allowed to gather and sell the personal information of others anywhere on the National Intranet. It represents an infringement of not only Personal Privacy but also the well-delineated distinctions between Personal Property and Productive Property. The Totality, through the Social Forums and Social Courts, will be expected to enforce this fact as part of the aforementioned Constitutional Obligation and its corresponding Constitutional Intent.
Categories: Digital Realm
The Fourth Estate 
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