It is truly staggering, I think, the manner in which creeping surveillance and the infrastructure for a genuine Orwellian nightmare is so casually implemented by the Government. The news that the experiment of CCTV systems which have operators that can talk to you through speaker systems is coming to London from Middlesborough is such an example.We are told by the politicians and Home Secretary that our fears about civil liberties are unfounded. That it is only people who have done things wrongs that should fear the move. This fallacy is now the standard line in fact from anyone in Government. Nothing to fear, nothing to hide.
The problem, as I have said before, is that the argument misrepresents the matter of civil liberties. The issue against these systems is actually about autonomy over ourselves. Where we are, and where we go, is something that we decide as individuals. Crucially though the state exists because of us, not despite of us. The widespread use of CCTV - which has made us the most watched country in the world - has shifted that relationship in a fundamental way.
The increase now of CCTV systems in which operators can talk to those they are watching with a booming voice on loud speakers, introduces another shift in our relationship with the state. More importantly it is another piece of technology pitched in the isolation of its supposed benefits without consideration of the total infrastructure we are building.
Democracy is a delicate thing, simply because we have managed to maintain it here does not mean that we cannot possibly become something else which is much darker in a moment. A piece of bad legislation, like the Regulatory Powers Act which was proposed a year or so ago could still be introduced which would provide some future - yet to be determined tyrant - with the ability to take over.
John Reid may say that these CCTV systems will help fight crime, but before we mess with our liberties we should make them always subject to the Stalin test. Would Stalin have liked the technology we are implementing? Would he have found it useful? If the answer is yes then to proceed anyway whilst saying "it could never happen here" is simply folly.
How long is it before we find ourselves being told that in order to tackle obesity we must all take part in physical exercise organised by those in CCTV control centres watching and counting our aerobics? When the reality starts to imitate the dystopian world of literature we should start to worry and be very vocal about it.
8 comments:
How long is it beofre we find ourselves being told that in order to tackle obesity we must all take part in physical exercise organised by those in CCTV control centres watching and counting our aerobics?
I started to laugh, but quickly realised that this is not a far-fetched idea. It could happen. It is for our own good, after all, they will say. I can even picture Hewitt defending the proposal on Sky News.
A great post, Dizzy. I agree with your points about autonomy over ourselves etc.
Huxley, Brave New World; what more can be said.
I think this, if more than NuLab Emptyspeak, will be very expensive for the taxpayer. How long do they think a talking camera will stay functional? I will take my spray paint and brolly to the first one I come across. They will be wanting a cctv in my bedroom next.
You've got to admit Dizzy, it would be a cool job.
'You in the red jacket, yes you in the red jacket at the bus stop, please pick up that drinks can and put it in the bin.'
Perhaps they could do like they do in North Korea, and tell us what a wonderful country we live in via a system of load speakers every morning.
Henry Porter's , as usual, excellent response to the Brownite shrill Polly Toynbee on this issue is well worth reading:
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/henry_porter/2007/03/one_of_the_things_about.html
"Polly Toynbee attacked the surveillance conspiracy mania "as a symptom of the middle-class wish to be victims too". She continued: "There is some decadence in paranoid speculation about imaginary abuses when real social injustice is all around."
It is difficult to think of anything more crass published in the pages of the Guardian during the last decade"
Will the Tories scrap the National Identity Register? They haven't said they will.
Yes they have
interesting name you have there.
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