QOTD: “you were fighting a never-ending war that gave you a never ending excuse for looking into people’s lives”
by digby
And yet, perhaps individuals can be empowered by the same technology that subjugates us in the hands of the government?
Michael Shelden, author of “Orwell: The Authorized Biography,” told NPR earlier this month that today’s surveillance society is just like the book.
Orwell, Mr. Shelden said, “could see that war and defeating an enemy could be used as a reason for increasing political surveillance.” He added, “You were fighting a never-ending war that gave you a never-ending excuse for looking into people’s lives.”
Data collection and video surveillance are only going to continue to grow as technology seeps into more areas of our culture, either strapped to our bodies as wearable computers or hovering over cities as inexpensive drones that monitor people from the sky.
So what can people do? Those who want to protect people’s civil liberties say more cameras is the only real check and balance left.
“In the hands of an individual, the video camera can be a very empowering thing,” Mr. Stanley said. “When it’s employed by the government to watch over the citizens, it has the opposite effect.”
I’m not sure what I think about that. But it’s an interesting thought.
Meanwhile some governments are doing all it can to stop individuals from documenting its activities. But you do still have rights.
.