Erosion of Privacy

I enjoyed 1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley immensely when I was a young teenager. But then of course it was all science fiction. The world these books described would never happen.

How wrong I was.

Today with the way the world is changing, the realities of these two books is becoming closer at an astonishing speed.

In particular the United States and the United Kingdom are the leaders in this encroaching Orwellian nightmare.

"War is peace; Freedom is slavery; Ignorance is strength," wrote George Orwell in his book 1984.

In recent years in the name of peace wars have been fought and entire populations controlled all in the name of freedom. While government spin and an acquiescent media help to keep people ignorant of their leader’s real motivations.

Technology today has altered many lives for the better. Several of these advances have made day-to-day life more pleasurable. But at the same time not everyone is aware of the sinister dangers that lie behind many of these technological advances.

Slowly our privacy is eroding without us realizing to what extent. Governments use technology to snoop on us and it is becoming more and more invasive. It distracts us with inaccurate subjects; misrepresents history in order to “protect” us from various multiple threats.

We are being schooled to fear asylum seekers, climate change, deranged terrorists and even one another.

Western governments, I believe, are perfecting the politics of fear because fearful citizens will do their bidding without question and voluntarily subject themselves to control.

And Great Britain has become the expert of this technique in the western world.

The British House of Lords has reported this month (April 2009) that Britain has constructed one of the most extensive and technologically advanced surveillance systems in the world in the name of combating terrorism and crime and improving administrative efficiency.

What do you think?