1984 was a pretty wretched year. Thatcher’s jackboot was stamping down on Nationalized industries as she sought to gut the workforce while providing little support for those crushed under the heel. All in the name of capitalism, you understand. It all seems a little quaint now, perhaps that’s how the past is always seen, but it hardly holds a candle to this dark present-day and the looming figure of an unbidden future.
So it comes more with resignation than shock that Social Security plan to do away with its press releases that kept anyone who cared to know abreast of any developments and updates at the agency. Instead, you’ll have to access X, of all places, to see whatever curated information the powers-that-be decide we’re allowed to view. Perhaps it will be on that site that we first learn of Social Security’s seppuku.
The announcement itself came from Linda Kerr-Davis, the SSA regional commissioner, in a meeting with management earlier this week. She’s quoted as stating, “We are no longer planning to issue press releases or those dear colleague letters to inform the media and public about programmatic and service changes. Instead, the agency will be using X to communicate to the press and the public … so this will become our communication mechanism.”
She reportedly added “I know this probably sounds very foreign to you. It did to me as well. It’s not what we are used to, but we are in different times now.”
Never a truer word was issued. It may be the last from the agency for a while.