In the 1960s, surreptitiously filming people made for a good laugh on prime time television. Now it's serious business. The New York Post noted that one of its reporters was recorded by fifty-four cameras in a mere eight-block walk in the Big Apple. "Hidden cameras enhance people's safety," opined Brian Cury, founder of something called EarthCam. "It's a way to share information and make people's lives better." Says who?
I recently caught the powerful German-language film, The Lives of Others. It's about the Stasi, East Germany's intrusive domestic spying agency that was said to be the world's best (or worst). Enemies of the state, or even friends of the state, were never out of the Stasi's far-seeing eye. With the advance of technology, and the growing fear of terrorism, I wonder if the spying apparatus in this country--which often involves private cameras and is not coordinated under a single government agency--is more extensive, even if more benevolent, than the Stasi's.
Sure, unlike the Stasi, the surveillance the Post discusses does not occur within our homes. It's in public spaces. But is it healthy to know that someone is always watching? That's one of the subthemes of The Lives of Others--how the fear of running afoul of the watchers alters private behavior. It dehumanizes. I'd much prefer 54 New York City cops on those eight blocks than those 54 cameras. Alas, Michael Jackson's backing vocal from 1984--"I always feel like somebody's watching me"--has proven prophetic. Life imitates art.
The world is a safer place with hidden cameras. The world was a better place prior to star 69, airport guards paid to confiscate tooth paste, hidden cameras, and other invasions.
It doesn't bother me in department stores, banks, c@sinos, etc. I was in London recently and never even thought about it. I guess I don't have any principled opposition to it in the public square.
Safer? Safer for who? The US government has gone to great lengths to protect ITSELF (barracading the White House after OK City, spending a fortune on anthrax detection for the mail -- destined for GOVERNMENT buildings, the whole "color coded threat system" which is primarily focused on how to keep the government running in the event of an attack, etc.), but I don't see where they've tried to make you and me safer. Maybe we're safer with a fully functioning government, but I don't see any increased vigilance at the local mall, my train station, buses, the DC METRO, other soft targets, etc. I do see roads closed and access to OUR government's buildings curtailed, though.
Our government says "Well, of course we can't protect every soft target.". But they'll spend a fortune (before they do ANYTHING else, mind you) ensuring that every last one of the 100s of thousands of government facilities around the country are protected. Because after all, they're just too important to do without.
We were safer when WE were our own government, and before these career lawyers took over the country.
Couldn't agree more. Amen brother.
You know, I really do think that lawyers are at the root of most of the problems with this country. Not to say they’re sitting around rubbing their greedy little hands together thinking things up (well, maybe they are) but they are certainly recipients of results of laws gone astray.
A new equal rights bill for students that the Governator is pushing in California will eventually lead to more chaos in an already out of control public education system and will open up a plethora of lawsuits with mucho pro bono bucks for the lawyer lobbies.
Little Johnny goes to school; somebody says something unkind to Little Johnny; Little Johnny goes home and tells his parents; parents sue the school/teacher; scared teachers can’t say anything to all of the Little Johnnys and Janes for fear that they’ll get sued; discipline/order breaks down; chaos ensues.
Regarding a somewhat different matter, years ago (former) Sun Micro. CEO Scott McNeeley said it well: "You have no privacy. Get over it." Though he took a lot of flack for that statement, he's still right--and there's never anything to gain by yelling at the weather.
