HOW WE CAME TO LOVE BIG BROTHER...
I note that there are now more than four million CCTV cameras in the UK, one for every 14 people, and the national DNA database which was set up by police to combat crime now holds 3.5 million profiles. I also see we now have the use of special listening devices which can be placed in lamp posts, street furniture and offices. More than 300 of the cameras with built-in microphones have been fitted in benefit offices and city centres. The equipment can pick up aggressive tones on the basis of decibel level, pitch and speed at which words are spoken. Westminster council has already started piloting the listening devices, but experts say the use of these microphones raises questions about how surveillance can be used to intrude into the private lives of citizens. How have we come to this pretty pass where we are being watched and listened to wherever we go?
Simple - we have a political class - Labour/Conservative/Liberal - which wants to monitor and control us, to restrict our liberty. We need to rise up and assert our independence and demand our freedoms back. Big Brother may be watching us - but he needs to be given a pair of blackened eyes.
Here is the warning...
"He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother. "
David Vance
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Reader Comments (3)
A superb and moving crescendo at the end of 1984.
BTW Do I understand you correctly that you are in favour of the cameras being used to track possible terrorists be dismantled?
Arn't we all "possible terrorists"? Especially in the eyes of Big Brother...
This is scary. I don't like it.