Is it 1984 yet?

[thattallguy201]

[full article from the Seattle Times is here]

The unsettling thing about living in a surveillance society isn't just that you're being watched. It's that you have no idea

Comments

[exquiscadavre]

There's now a new sign up at our Cleveland train station, that says passengers may be subject to random seaches of their persons and posessions.

How did I get to Russia circa 1980?

[thattallguy201]

By living to 1984.

BTW, "Random searches" means they'll run everyone's face through facial recognition software except when the computer is randomly down. :)

Actually I'm surprised it's taken this long for such a sign to go up -- most places have had them for a long time now. Or maybe the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame isn't considered a particularly juicy target. :) (Did you watch Jericho? Worth downloading.)

the dutch response

[ext_94211]

I'm a naturally paranoid person, so I get excited when other people notice the black helicopters, too.

The Great City of London has more surveillance cameras per capita than anywhere else in the world. At least, that's what the guy in the shady trench coat keeps whispering to me. Of course, the government (and quite a lot of the citizenry) believe that the few crimes that are prevented or criminals that are caught and convicted because of these cameras far outweigh the minimal intrusion into the privacy of innocent city-dwellers.

The Dutch response is similar. "I'm not a criminal, so why do I care that the government is watching me?"

I point in vain to the Police State on the Thames, to which they reply how wonderful that would be in some parts of Amsterdam.

So, Mr. Tall Guy, how do you reply to that? How do you convince them that consolidation of power and a weakening of personal rights ultimately leads to greater abuse than it prevents?