Government Surveillance: A Greater Threat Than Terrorism

Wednesday, January 14, 2015
By Paul Martin

Ted Baumann
Activist Post.com
Wednesday, January 14, 2015

The man sat on the floor, awkwardly wedged into the far corner of his apartment, his knees drawn up under his chin. The faltering light from the dirty window barely illuminated the book balanced on his knees. Periodically he bent closer to see the words as he scrawled out his thoughts with a dull pencil.

This was the only way he could express himself beyond the scrutiny of government surveillance that sought to know and record his every thought and action.

You may recognize this scene, one of the most arresting from George Orwell’s dystopian fiction classic, Nineteen Eighty-Four. Winston Smith was breaking the law by seeking privacy outside the range of the “telescreen” in his apartment.

In an irony that would no doubt give Orwell grim satisfaction in his own prescience, Britons today are being pursued and prosecuted under an Act of Parliament designed to curb terrorism … for failing to pay a license fee for the televisions in their own homes.

Big Brother is Watching You

Orwell wrote soon after the invention of the television, which he envisaged as having evolved into an all-seeing two-way surveillance and propaganda device — the telescreen. It subjected viewers to constant hectoring demands for obedience, and reported their every move to Big Brother, the avatar of the all-seeing surveillance state.

The fact that the novel is set in a future (and fictional) Britain only heightens the irony of recent revelations in the UK. The government of Tory Prime Minister David Cameron has been using surveillance powers designed for the “War on Terrorism” to ferret out Britons who have not paid their hated “TV License,” a £145.50 ($220) annual tax imposed on every home containing a set in the country.

The Rest…HERE

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