There was a time when illiteracy was synonymous with thumbprints. Back home, people who couldn’t sign their names on the dotted lines were usually labeled ‘thumb print’ cases, meaning illiterates. Fast forward to today, when a guy in the office came round getting everybody’s thumbprints on a little glass topped gadget like the ones you see at sophisticated airport immigration counters. This, I was told, was to do away with the card access system (which can be a pain, especially when your wallet is pregnant like Gorge Costanza’s wallet which actually tilts his posture considerably).
It left me marveling at the way human beings shift their perspective over time. From its rather ignominious association with the unlettered, the humble thumb print has come a long way (and is probably holding a Virginia Slims) to be at the forefront of security technology, going where no thumb has gone before, to the final frontier of highly secured office doors everywhere, as if to say, ‘I maybe illiterate but I can get in, can you, you educated punk?’
Thumbs up has an altogether new meaning, don’t you think?
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