I remember the phrase "Innocent until proven guilty" from past times. I took that to mean that people are innocent until someone/something proves them guilty. This used to mean that the "burden of proof" was on the "prosecution". The prosecuting lawyer was the one on the "offensive", and had to present evidence proving that the defendent was in fact guilty.
 If it were the other way around - if people are "guilty until proven innocent" - the defending lawyer would have to be the one on the "offensive": they would have to locate and present proof, such as DNA samples or witnesses, that the "guilty" defendent was in fact innocent.

Several years ago I began to sense that in certain instances nowadays it is the other way around: In some common everyday scenarios, we are guilty until proven innocent.

First example, drug tests at work:
 At the chip house where I worked, each of us were periodically tested for drugs. The tests were random and ocurred about once a year. I came home one day and told my kids, "Well, there's a bottle of your daddy's pee on some plane up there on the way to a lab on the East coast."
  So, in other words, all employees in certain jobs are users of drugs until the machines prove otherwise.

Second example, travel on airplanes:
 Doesn't take much imagination here. Before entering the main section of the airport, You are scanned. Your clothes and shoes are scanned. Your carry-on bags are scanned and subject to inspection. Your checked luggage is also scrutinized. For example, I find that I can no longer brings boxes of my favorite tea because they consistently trigger an open-bag inspection, presumably because they might contain drugs.
 So everybody on the planet who wants to fly on an airplane is considered a criminal/terrorist/drug user until the machines prove that they are not.

Corollary: There is a corollary regarding our physical health and well being.
 I remember that in earlier years (the 50s, 60s, 70s) most of us thought of ourselves as healthy. It was suggested that we all get physical check-ups from time to time, but these check-ups were mostly non-specific and routine. We were healthy until proven unhealthy.

Nowadays, we all have hypertension, diabetes, iron deficiency, and the like until the blood test machine proves otherwise.

Men all have possible prostate cancer until the machine says our PSA count is “normal”.

Women all have breast cancer until the mammography machine says otherwise.

We all have possible colon cancer until the colonoscopy machine says we don’t.

In other words, as far as Medical Science is concerned (especially as we get older) we are all diseased until the machines prove otherwise.
 We are urged from all media to get specialized tests - magazines, TV, the Internet, even ads. One has to wonder how much of the proliferation of "modern" diseases is due to the constant warnings that we may already have them.

Copyright © 2019 J.A.