Far more
insidious than Orwell imagined
Tim O’Connor
will interview Katherine Albrecht, co-author of a book called
Spychips for his “Conversations” show. (The show will be
seen this week on Cable 8/Verizon 43.) It got me thinking and a
little scared.
The author
talks to Tim about this new worldwide trend of tracking
individuals on a micro level in order to control behavior. It’s
a system that lovingly dovetails to create a world where
corporations can make previously unimagined profits and
governments can keep its masses perfectly obedient.
Sound like
fiction? Like 1984? It’s not. It’s here. And it’s
terrifying. And it’s far more insidious than Orwell could have
imagined. It’s why capitalist America loves communist China:
it’s a system created by ingenious American technologies
implemented by a government of over 1.3 billion people that has
no pretense of caring about individual rights. And our own
powers that be can’t wait to sell this spy culture to us.
This system
will be marketed to America as convenience. Your credit card
(some already do aspects of this) will be read as you come into
the store. Your available credit line will be available to the
store’s database, your purchasing history and personal
information. Even the prices, depending on your credit line and
history, could instantly be changed as you walk past. This not
some distant future. This is our future.
Katherine,
off-camera, described a barroom that read RF licenses as patrons
came in the door. The owner boasted that he knew how many blond
haired, blue-eyed women under 130 pounds came into his
establishment and he knew all their addresses.
But it’s not
just creepy individuals who will be able to abuse this system of
data gathering. Or where a corporation can seduce you and price
you according to your desires and ability to pay. Or where a
corporate mug shot database is kept of you so you can be
specially tracked if a company thinks you’re a thief. (Katherine
describes how a store in Brockton did this.)
There will
be no more playing hooky in this spy culture. No trysts or
secret treats or even white lies. GPS employee tracking is not
just for your UPS driver anymore. This close monitoring will all
be justified (after all, your company pays you to work, not go
to the ball game) in a brave new world where there will be no
escape from the monotony that is your working class life.
This will be
packaged as “Homeland Security” (so any politician opposed to it
would be branded as unpatriotic) and as convenience (try
shopping without your store card). But in actuality, this is not
about monitoring us all to look for patterns that scream
terrorist and then prevent disaster. These privacy infringements
are much more closely related to control than protection. This
is a system that declares war on its own people. But in this
brave new world there will be plenty of high tech devices to
absorb our days and energies. Plenty of interactive
entertainment. Plenty of ways to convince ourselves that none of
this matters.
We have our
modern opium dens to preoccupy us and keep us from organizing
over the loss of real wages. From letting a war indefinitely
fought by rotating reservists concern us. From holding our
privacy as one of our most cherished freedoms. From remembering
that we fought the revolution, as one Patriot put it, “for the
right to be left alone.”
Our constant
monitoring by cameras and “Spychips” will sustain a world order
where there will be no effective protests. No John Lennons. No
Naders. No Malcolm Xs. Only kings, who will rule without
dissention.
Tanya
Willow, Canton Community TV
(Opinion expressed is the writer’s only.)
July 10,
2008
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