1984 & Big Brother
Just finished reading an AP/My Way article titled "FBI Behind Mysterious Surveillance Aircraft Over U.S. Cities". Here are the two opening paragraphs:
"The FBI is operating a small air force with scores of low-flying planes across the country carrying video and, at times, cellphone surveillance technology — all hidden behind fictitious companies that are fronts for the government, The Associated Press has learned."
"The planes' surveillance equipment is generally used without a judge's approval, and the FBI said the flights are used for specific, ongoing investigations. In a recent 30-day period, the agency flew above more than 30 cities in 11 states across the country, an AP review found."
The more you read of the article, the more disturbing it becomes. For those who might want check it out, here's the link to the entire article:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150602/us--fbi_surveillance_flights-e2320f0d2a.html
Upon finishing the AP story, my immediate response was that this secret surveillance by air via the FBI is just another one of many practices now taking place that the public hasn't been made aware of till now. So much for the Obama administration's promises of a transparent government.
In turn, it brought to mind George Orwell's book 1984 or Nineteen Eighty Four.
Here's a brief synopsis about the novel as posted on Wikipedia.
"Nineteen Eighty-Four, sometimes published as 1984, is a dystopian novel by English author George Orwell published in 1949.[1][2] The novel is set in Airstrip One (formerly known as Great Britain), a province of the superstate Oceania in a world of perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance and public manipulation, dictated by a political system euphemistically named English Socialism (or Ingsoc in the government's invented language, Newspeak) under the control of a privileged Inner Party elite, that persecutes individualism and independent thinking as "thoughtcrimes".[3]
"The tyranny is epitomised by Big Brother, the quasi-divine Party leader who enjoys an intense cult of personality but who may not even exist. The Party "seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power."[4] The protagonist of the novel, Winston Smith, is a member of the Outer Party, who works for the Ministry of Truth (or Minitrue), which is responsible for propaganda and historical revisionism. His job is to rewrite past newspaper articles, so that the historical record always supports the party line.[5] Smith is a diligent and skillful worker but he secretly hates the Party and dreams of rebellion against Big Brother".
The similarities as to what's happening now and in Orwell's book are truly amazing. I'm not saying we're at the point of 1984's way of life. Definitely not. We still have individual freedoms, vast formats for communicating and educating ourselves via the internet, CSPAN, cable tv and radio. And of course we still have individual right to vote. Living in the age of technology definitely has its advantages. But no doubt, it has its drawbacks too.
Some of those drawbacks are our loss of privacy. All you have to do is pay attention to the news on a regular basis and you'll see that technology is vast becoming more powerful but also more intrusive into our personal lives. The information gathered in the hands of the wrong people could well step over the line to the point where everything and everyone can be monitored, tracked down and then that information can be used for either for good or evil.
Is this really the way we want to live? Will all this technology ultimately help us track down the bad guys? The terrorists? Most possibly. But at what price? How much of our privacy should we give up in the name of safety?
And what about the power our government is quietly accumulating that the general public is mostly unaware of?
In just over the last year or so we've learned that the NSA has been collecting mass data and phone numbers of Americans without warrants, the Feds are taking over our waterways, the government is seeking more control over international trade, the police in major cities have been forced to stand down and let chaos reign supreme, making way for the Feds to take over eventually. And then there's Net Neutrality and the Fairness Doctrine. A subject I'll write about soon. This could be one of the worst things to happen to our country as it has the power to shut down voices and media that disagree with those in power. All under the guise of fairness.
1984 is a sci-fi novel. It's a story pulled from the writer's imagination. But yet I see some of it coming to life right here, right now. Like most novels there is exaggeration and dramatization to keep the reader interested and turning the pages. And though we still have vast freedoms, those freedoms are slowly eroding and unless we fight for them, we could end up with a 1984 type of society. Maybe not the one exactly described in the novel but a form of it.
"The FBI is operating a small air force with scores of low-flying planes across the country carrying video and, at times, cellphone surveillance technology — all hidden behind fictitious companies that are fronts for the government, The Associated Press has learned."
"The planes' surveillance equipment is generally used without a judge's approval, and the FBI said the flights are used for specific, ongoing investigations. In a recent 30-day period, the agency flew above more than 30 cities in 11 states across the country, an AP review found."
The more you read of the article, the more disturbing it becomes. For those who might want check it out, here's the link to the entire article:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150602/us--fbi_surveillance_flights-e2320f0d2a.html
Upon finishing the AP story, my immediate response was that this secret surveillance by air via the FBI is just another one of many practices now taking place that the public hasn't been made aware of till now. So much for the Obama administration's promises of a transparent government.
In turn, it brought to mind George Orwell's book 1984 or Nineteen Eighty Four.
Here's a brief synopsis about the novel as posted on Wikipedia.
"Nineteen Eighty-Four, sometimes published as 1984, is a dystopian novel by English author George Orwell published in 1949.[1][2] The novel is set in Airstrip One (formerly known as Great Britain), a province of the superstate Oceania in a world of perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance and public manipulation, dictated by a political system euphemistically named English Socialism (or Ingsoc in the government's invented language, Newspeak) under the control of a privileged Inner Party elite, that persecutes individualism and independent thinking as "thoughtcrimes".[3]
"The tyranny is epitomised by Big Brother, the quasi-divine Party leader who enjoys an intense cult of personality but who may not even exist. The Party "seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power."[4] The protagonist of the novel, Winston Smith, is a member of the Outer Party, who works for the Ministry of Truth (or Minitrue), which is responsible for propaganda and historical revisionism. His job is to rewrite past newspaper articles, so that the historical record always supports the party line.[5] Smith is a diligent and skillful worker but he secretly hates the Party and dreams of rebellion against Big Brother".
The similarities as to what's happening now and in Orwell's book are truly amazing. I'm not saying we're at the point of 1984's way of life. Definitely not. We still have individual freedoms, vast formats for communicating and educating ourselves via the internet, CSPAN, cable tv and radio. And of course we still have individual right to vote. Living in the age of technology definitely has its advantages. But no doubt, it has its drawbacks too.
Some of those drawbacks are our loss of privacy. All you have to do is pay attention to the news on a regular basis and you'll see that technology is vast becoming more powerful but also more intrusive into our personal lives. The information gathered in the hands of the wrong people could well step over the line to the point where everything and everyone can be monitored, tracked down and then that information can be used for either for good or evil.
Is this really the way we want to live? Will all this technology ultimately help us track down the bad guys? The terrorists? Most possibly. But at what price? How much of our privacy should we give up in the name of safety?
And what about the power our government is quietly accumulating that the general public is mostly unaware of?
In just over the last year or so we've learned that the NSA has been collecting mass data and phone numbers of Americans without warrants, the Feds are taking over our waterways, the government is seeking more control over international trade, the police in major cities have been forced to stand down and let chaos reign supreme, making way for the Feds to take over eventually. And then there's Net Neutrality and the Fairness Doctrine. A subject I'll write about soon. This could be one of the worst things to happen to our country as it has the power to shut down voices and media that disagree with those in power. All under the guise of fairness.
1984 is a sci-fi novel. It's a story pulled from the writer's imagination. But yet I see some of it coming to life right here, right now. Like most novels there is exaggeration and dramatization to keep the reader interested and turning the pages. And though we still have vast freedoms, those freedoms are slowly eroding and unless we fight for them, we could end up with a 1984 type of society. Maybe not the one exactly described in the novel but a form of it.
posted by Candle in the Wind at
9:58 AM
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