I read George Orwell's 1984 way back in the early 1960's. It was one of the books that helped turned me into a lifelong opponent of statism.
(Some of the other influential material that I read in my youth included John Noble's I Was a Slave in Soviet Russia and its companion volume, I Found God in Soviet Russia, as well as Frederic Bastiat's The Law and a potpourri of material from the Christian Anti Communism Crusade & Carl McIntyre's organization.)
It was 1984 that contributed the term "Big Brother" to our vocabulary. In the novel, Big Brother was the charismatic leader of the nation who exercised total control and demanded total devotion. In popular parlance, it came to refer to any statist system that seeks to subdue the individual to its control.
I remember one scene in Orwell's novel where protagonist Winston Smith sat in a small nook of his apartment, the only place not covered by the ubiquitous surveillance cameras that spied on everyone, everywhere. As he sat there, a small drone helicopter came and hovered outside the window, reminding him that he was not safe anywhere from the party's prying eyes.
In addition, the ruling power had plastered posters everywhere with the admonition, "Big Brother is Watching You." By the time I finished reading it, the story had impressed on my psyche the dangers of the state's ever expanding tendency to monitor its citizens.
Evidently, at this point of time, I'm part of a minority. So many of my fellow-citizens seem either unaware or unmoved by recent news about the expansion of the surveillance state.
Here are just a few items that show me that Orwell's nightmare is coming true in America, today:
1984 -- Are we there yet?
(Some of the other influential material that I read in my youth included John Noble's I Was a Slave in Soviet Russia and its companion volume, I Found God in Soviet Russia, as well as Frederic Bastiat's The Law and a potpourri of material from the Christian Anti Communism Crusade & Carl McIntyre's organization.)
It was 1984 that contributed the term "Big Brother" to our vocabulary. In the novel, Big Brother was the charismatic leader of the nation who exercised total control and demanded total devotion. In popular parlance, it came to refer to any statist system that seeks to subdue the individual to its control.
I remember one scene in Orwell's novel where protagonist Winston Smith sat in a small nook of his apartment, the only place not covered by the ubiquitous surveillance cameras that spied on everyone, everywhere. As he sat there, a small drone helicopter came and hovered outside the window, reminding him that he was not safe anywhere from the party's prying eyes.
In addition, the ruling power had plastered posters everywhere with the admonition, "Big Brother is Watching You." By the time I finished reading it, the story had impressed on my psyche the dangers of the state's ever expanding tendency to monitor its citizens.
Evidently, at this point of time, I'm part of a minority. So many of my fellow-citizens seem either unaware or unmoved by recent news about the expansion of the surveillance state.
Here are just a few items that show me that Orwell's nightmare is coming true in America, today:
- The FBI has admitted tracking visitors to a preparedness website
- This administration is about to complete the Bush plan that will enable the National Security Administration to collect and store data on anyone, anywhere.
- CIA touts ability to read all your connected electronic devices
- Facial recognition technology can now be used in conjunction with the multitude of surveillance cameras
- The possibility that new HD televisions will also be used to spy on their users
- Some jurisdictions in this country have already started to use spy drones
- New policy allows feds to store intelligence data on citizens with no terrorist ties
If you happen to find that little nook in your home that Big Brother can't yet peer into, it might be a good idea to keep quiet about it.
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