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Protest about Lockheed Martin's involvement by all means: but not by ignoring the form. Silence is only a denial of identity
Defying the census began as a contrarian stunt. In 2001 390,000 people listed their religion as "Jedi", propelling a fictitious faith ahead of Sikhism, Judaism and Buddhism in the national statistics. As teacher used to say, it wasn't clever and it wasn't funny – but at least it did no harm. The section in the census on religion is optional and misunderstood, the 70% who described themselves as "Christian" in 2001 perhaps confusing their cultural identity with active religious participation. A decade on from the Jedi explosion, however, resistance to the census has become tiresomely predictable and self-defeating. There are many good reasons for filling in the form accurately by Sunday, when data collection ends, and only bad ones for wilfully corrupting it. Of all the many intrusive sets of information about us held by the state and private business, the census has the best claim to being impartial, complete and for the public good. Refusing to fill it in brings no advantage: doing so is as much a civic act as voting, an affirmation that we are part of society, not isolated individuals. The more unreliable the census, the more distorted the government's priorities become. Urban areas, and particularly poor ones, end up undercounted and eventually underfunded too. Some people are concerned that Lockheed Martin, a defence contractor, is working on the census, and are calling for a boycott in response. Protest about this by all means: but not by ignoring the form. Silence is not brave, only a denial of identity.
