..."Big brother", "Surveillance Society", people have come up with a wide variety of terms for describing what they see as the creepy hand of government, moving to observe and control their lives. Whether that aim is (as Pat Condell believes) to enforce a politically corect nightmare of enforced equality, where some are more equal than others, or as others believe, to create a completely capitalist society where corporations and private security firms rule the roost, controlling the economy and the media, people have always complained that their rights to privacy and freedom are being violated.
Through the years, we've heard of all sorts of outlandish tecniques allegedly used by the governments of the world to control people, whether it's miocrowave satellite rays, secret nerve gas, men in black, computers implanted in the brain, or all sorts of other outlandish rubbish. We've heard it all before.
Why would I say it's rubbish?
Ask yourself, how likely is it that the governments of the world would only ever show an interest in monitoring the paranoid schitzophrenics of the world, and no one else.
That said though, it is true, at least here in the UK, that the surveillance society everyone feared, is creeping forwards towards us, inexorably and imperceptibly. It is widely accepted that we now have more CCTV cameras per person than anywhere else in the world, and ministries and public figures, even within the sphere of our own government, have started to sound warnings, criticising the way we are monitored and observed. Even with ID cards thoroughly discredited, the government tries its best to bring them in, via the back door, under the front door, through the front door in an envelope marked "to whom it may concern, free privacy invasion, look inside!"
After the CCTV and ID card drama, RFID - Radio Frequency Identification - tags came to the fore. Tiny little tags capable of storing and transmitting information about the product they're attached to, used for stock-keeping purposes, location of stock, and other sundry functions. Fantastic, these things make warehousing more efficient right? Well, yes, but it's alleged they don't stop transmitting once the product has been purchased and taken home. Pro freedom campaigners cried foul, "People can read what products we have in our homes" and other arguments. I have to admit I never followed the RFID issue closely, because I haven't really been that paranoid.
If someone wants to know that I thought Crysis was good enough to spend money on, they don't need to scan my house for an RFID tag, they can just come on here and read a detailed synopsis.
But, suffice it to say that with the events of the past 8 years, with terrorism on the rise thanks to our most welcome and equal (or else) bunch of mouth breathing religious zealots, there has been something of a tug of war going on between:
People who want to be protected at all costs, who want their cowardly and miserable existences protected regardless of whether the method of such protection forces a change in the fabric of our society...
and
People who want freedom from monitoring, from tracking and from government interference, who want freedom so much that they are willing to trade security and safety for it.
Angry shouts come from both camps, as freedom lovers express disbelief and disgust that some people actually want to live in a state where everyone is watched all the time, like some freakish analogue of the truman show or Ed TV, and people who well, want personal safety at any and all costs, who seem to scratch their heads, thinking "why wouldn't you want to be safe? You're not a criminal are you?"
Where am I going with this?
Even as pro freedom campaigners, politicians and public figures around the globe have been loudly opposing steps taken by various states to curtail the freedom of their citizens, safety lovers, the weak hearts, and childish minds of society, have actually been encouraging more and more intrusive methods for monitoring and controlling everyone - whether they feel they would benefit from the added "safety" or not - for their own personal benefit, whether they like it, or not.
This week's shot across the bows of freedom comes from a Facebook group entitled "Campaign to have satelite tracking chip inserted in all Paedophiles".
"A great idea" you might think, "It would keep our kids safe, and if they've nothing to hide, they've nothing to fear".
And broadly speaking, I agree, at least in principle. Except for one or two minor points.
I'm fully in favour - within reason - of new methods and tecniques that can keep children safe from the attentions of these sexual predators. It's common knowledge what can happen and indeed what does happen, if they're allowed to commit these crimes, and it stands to reason that any way we can stop paedophiles from attacking children, would probably, quite literally, be a lifesaver.
And yet.
Companies are already finishing up studies and tests on already complete and functioning "satellite tracking chips", it is true. The terrifying implications of this technology notwithstanding, these people, the facebook group that is, 8,207 (at this time) people that have chosen to say "my safety is more important than your freedom" are actually in favour of enforced and mandatory satellite tracking of other people.
"Let's get the technology in now"
"Let's get monitoring now!"
"Let's ensure our safety, now!"
Let's track paedophiles, the dirty twisted evil bastards that they are, let's keep our children safe.
2009's campaign, you heard it here first.
And in the first half of 2010?
Let's track rapists, the dirty twisted evil bastards that they are, let's keep people safe!
The second half?
Let's track shoplifters, the dirty evil non-paying bastards that they are! Let's protect our property!
Then what? Will all drivers have to have compulsory microchips "Let's monitor every single driver and road user so we can see who was near the scene of an accident".
This sort of thinking will precipitate a terrible new way of solving crimes, that is, everyone is presumed guilty (until they are eliminated from the enquiry) simply by virtue of their proximity to an offence.
And that's assuming that this technology is restricted solely to police use. Now let me draw a distinction between "active tracking chips" that exist to highlight a person's location, and "passive" non-powered chips that provide more security in bank transactions, access control, etc.
I have no problem with the latter, a technology that is not self powered, that needs to come into contact with the appropriate device to work, and which doesn't actively transmit information about the "host".
But the second technology fills me with revulsion and horror. Let me spell it out to you pro-safety campaigners out there, in black (off black) and white (grey).
Our - yours and mine - freedom is more important than our safety - yours and mine. People have died to defend and protect your freedom, many people in many wars. And you, you absolutely sickening cowards, are willing to throw everything they fought for away, in the face of their heroism and their memory, for the sake of your personal safety. You are willing to change the fabric of this society to suit yourselves, you are willing to advance the interests of governments and corporations at the expense of "the person in the street", to suit yourselves. No goal - even one this laudable - is worth the hastening destruction of the society that I have grown up in, that you have helped create, and that you are now helping to destroy.
Monitoring and tracking are not substitutes for common sense, and with regard to this facebook group, they are not substitutes for adequate parental supervision, either.
Thankfully, these people, with their noble, yet very blinkered world views, represent only some 0.004% of facebook's total user base, and with our government merrily ignoring petitions with many tens of thousands of signiatures, I'm confident that this one won't even reach the front door of number 10.
But never let it be said that the enemies of freedom march in the streets of other countries, or work in darkened offices high above our streets.
The enemies of freedom, of our society, are in this case nothing more sinister than those who should simply be careful what they wish for.
Let's hope that this group, and other groups that favour safety over freedom, fade into obscurity.
And let's also hope that we manage to keep our children, people, goods and property safe, without these very very dangerous technologies which they cry out for.
Stay safe.
But not at any cost.
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