microchip tracking devices<\/a>.<\/p>\nOf course, it\u2019s a dangerous world now. These things will make us safer, they say. Besides, you can\u2019t desire security and forego its means, we\u2019re told. Even Orwell himself eschewed that kind of pacifist naivet\u00e9: \u201cPeople sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.\u201d So it\u2019s wise to remember that potential for misuse is no reason to abandon something entirely.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, the potential for misuse is why the most powerful things are that much more dangerous. Strength spoils for deployment, and the greater transparency we have about its scope and motivation, the better.<\/p>\n
But when you come to something as prevalent as surveillance, transparency is naturally at odds with efficacy. How can we explain our need for shadowing, thereby checking its misuse, without at the same time tipping our hand, making it useless?<\/p>\n
The devil in these details is nuanced, lying at the very heart of man. A friend raised in a communist country explained her wariness of information gathering: \u201cThey do it on your behalf, for the common good. But it\u2019s only a matter of time before they use it for something else\u2014not common, not good.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is true of even the most benevolent state, and can become the means by which it grows hostile to freedom. It takes a supremely generous view of the sovereign to believe that all its registry-keepers are angels.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the power,\u201d my friend continued, \u201ccomes by way of the distrust it fosters.\u201d Planting doubt is one of Big Brother\u2019s strongest, deftest tools. There\u2019s a pervasive fear that anyone could be a spy. Big Brother doesn\u2019t even need to be as big as you think he is, because your ignorance as to his true size silences you.<\/p>\n
As a result, culture\u2019s fabric weakens\u2014bonds, ties, attachments, are considered irregular. You avoid implicating crowds and keep your mouth shut. Further, no group can stand because all individuals are too wary to form one; nobody inflects even a hint of disgust, let alone a cry of outrage, because such measures risk not only being rebuffed, but also reported\u2014protest is stifled from the outset.<\/p>\n
Even to raise these doubts is to risk being labeled a kook, a \u201cblack helicopters\u201d guy, a tinfoil-hat- wearing paranoid. Better not to speak than to be misunderstood. How would it look?<\/p>\n
And thus we surrender more and more, and begin to watch ourselves as much as we are watched. Our brother is our keeper, we his, and each his own most of all.<\/p>\n
Maddeningly, those who do wish us harm seem to creep through the net anyway, despite everything\u2014caught too late, if ever. Because when all are suspect, none stand out. In another time, the recent Boston bombers\u2014who publically avowed their hatred on social media\u2014would\u2019ve been the ones cowering in their holes, not the people.<\/p>\n
A black-hearted punk bleeding in a boat would not hold a city of millions hostage. But he did; he will again.<\/p>\n
When it comes into its own, the course of state power seems ineluctable. Small things are easier to control, but somehow things just can\u2019t stay small for long. Projects have to get done, so there must always be more people to do them. Then there must be machines to help, and all must be put into records, to keep track. An insurmountable number of machines and papers follow.<\/p>\n
Consequently, in addition to the distrust Big Brother promotes, corroding civility, the bureaucracy he requires does more. It transforms those on either side of the cordon. Their responses become stock.<\/p>\n
Behind the desk: \u201cMy hands are tied.\u201d \u201cWe must follow procedures.\u201d \u201cLet me transfer you.\u201d Thus, the person in the box becomes less flexible, less sympathetic, less human.<\/p>\n
In front of the desk: \u201cIt\u2019s not much to surrender.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s easier this way.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s not worth the hassle.\u201d Thus, the person in the cage becomes less assertive, less dignified, less free.<\/p>\n
The newly-empowered would nod at all this. They\u2019d easily qualify it: \u201cDon\u2019t worry. I\u2019m a good guy. Not like them<\/em>. You can trust me<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\nThey even have their own set of apologists; the once-condemned measures are all right now, because a \u201cbetter\u201d set of people are involved. \u00a0Columnist James Liliks says the excusers offer a heartfelt distinction: \u201cBut this<\/em> \u2018Big Brother\u2019 is different,\u201d they say. \u201cHe\u2019s mine<\/em>, and I love him.\u201d<\/p>\nIn Tolkein\u2019s trilogy, Frodo, weary of carrying the all-powerful ring, wants to give it to the elf queen Galadriel, whom he knows to be good: \u201cYou\u2019d put things to rights\u2026.You\u2019d make some folks pay for their dirty work.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI would,\u201d Galadriel says, as she rejects it. \u201cThat is how it would begin. But it would not stop with that, alas.\u201d<\/p>\n
A.G. Harmon<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0teaches Shakespeare, Law and Literature, Jurisprudence, and Writing at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. His novel,\u00a0A House All Stilled,<\/em>\u00a0won the 2001 Peter Taylor Prize for the Novel.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"July 4, 1984. I don\u2019t remember the day, but surely jokes were made back then; the irony of America\u2019s anniversary, celebrating liberty and self-reliance\u2014falling within the year that symbolizes tyranny and oppression. Few are unacquainted with Orwell\u2019s masterwork, 1984, featuring an ever-present state, \u201cBig Brother,\u201d with an eponym that connotes good, wholesome things\u2014family, protection, strength. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1049,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[414,129],"class_list":["post-3671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-g-harmon","tag-george-orwell","tag-politics"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/162\/2013\/06\/bigbrother.jpeg\" "\\"bigbrother\\"")
<\/a>July 4, 1984. I don\u2019t remember the day, but surely jokes were made back then; the irony of America\u2019s anniversary, celebrating liberty and self-reliance\u2014falling within the year that symbolizes tyranny and oppression.<\/p>\n