Orwellian Nightmare
Two things this week have rattled my cage and both of them are government related.
Firstly, my friend and I wanted to get into the Science Museum shop so that he could buy a gadget for his iphone. He knew what he wanted and had we been allowed in, the whole transaction would have taken about five minutes. As we were hovering in the doorway the security guard stopped us and said they were closing so we couldn’t go in. Politely we explained what we wanted to do but still the guard shook his head and told us in a weary and annoyed voice that there was no-one to check our bags, so access was denied.
I looked at my friend, he looked at me. “Yeah, because we’re all terrorists,” I retorted sarcastically. When was the last time any British museum was blown up? Yes, I’m wracking my brains for an answer too. Just because you’re carrying a bag doesn’t mean that you’re hiding a bomb. And there are other ways. We’ve all heard of the shoe bomber for example.
This morning I read in the newspaper that Kent Police, along with other police forces, are going to be using cameras in the sky to monitor motorists and protestors.What a random coupling. How do they edit out non-motorists and protesters I wonder? Clearly every single one of us will be watched. We are already the most surveilled nation in Europe and in the top five of the most watched countries in the world yet paradoxically crime rates are not significantly falling.
What happens now is that many crimes are recategorised so as to reduce their seriousness, then they can be dismissed by the police as being too trivial to investigate. That’s how the crime statistics get manipulated and that’s how the public is duped into thinking that the police are doing a good job and that is also how the government is also able to justify spending more and more money on surveillance equipment and an ever expanding police force.
I, for one, resent the fact that this government is out to make criminals of us all, that they want to keep tabs on us “just in case”. If you have seen “Minority Report” or read the story from which it was taken, you will know that there is a very big and important moral dilemma to be considered when we set out to make criminals of people who have yet to commit a crime.
The argument that if you haven’t done anything wrong then you have nothing to fear is not only a non-argument in my book; it also allows this increase in tracking our every movement. By saying this is all okay if we’re not the type of people who commit crimes, we are making the ever-increasing surveillance permissible. I haven’t done anything illegal, but it will only be a matter of time before this government think of something, and they’ll have all of my details ready at the touch of a button so that they can come round and arrest me for something as simple as writing this. I’m not paranoid; this really is the way things are heading.
This isn’t an Orwellian nightmare, it’s much, much worse than that, but the British people live under an illusion that we live in a democracy, which would be funny if it wasn’t so frightening. And if we protest against anything that we don’t like, anything that veers away from government policy, well now we have cameras in the sky recording our usually peaceful actions. Is that democracy really? Or fascism masquerading as democracy?
Come on people wake up or the thought police could well be smashing your door in at 3am just because an anti-government thought has crossed your mind.
Just because you can’t see the walls doesn’t mean you’re not in prison.
Before I go, I just stumbeled upon this online competition where the prize is some tims at a couple of ski resorts. You guys should really put your names forward, this would be an awesome way to spend the long weekend!