Surveillance Society

Today is the 60th anniversary of the publication of George Orwell's classic, 1984. In one of those synchronicities I love, I posted a comic referring to the concept in the title in my last post from yesterday. Britain has gone much further than the US with respect to monitoring private communications (e.g. phones and e-mail), and public movement, but we mustn't delude ourselves into thinking we are fully aware of the degree to which our own governments are monitoring our communications, our actions, our purchases, our readings, and our movements- or even what aspects of our lives they are capable of monitoring. My skepticism monitor jumps to eleven any time I hear the "slippery slope" argument, but the fact that the idea has been so over- and mis- used does not mean that it's always invalid. This might be a good idea to ponder on today.

And if you haven't read 1984, you should. I could only read it once. I tried to read it again during shrub's second campaign, and simply couldn't: it was that raw and depressing.