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Big Brother: George Orwell’s Predictions Come True?
Big Brother is not only watching you – now he’s barking orders too. Britain’s first ‘talking’ CCTV cameras have arrived, publicly berating bad behaviour and shaming offenders into acting more responsibly.
The system allows control room operators who spot any anti-social acts – from dropping litter to late-night brawls – to send out a verbal warning: ‘We are watching you’. Read full story…
My comments: I’m shocked that the British people, the same people who staged a tax revolt and succeeded in changing the tax system in Britain are actually putting up with this intrusive, Orwellian system of stopping crime. Since 9/11, people are living in fear and allowing our governments to slowly strip away all our individual freedoms. Fearful people can be controlled, and that is what is happening. Collectivism at it’s worst. And the majority of people think this is a good thing? That can’t be true.
September 24th, 2006 at 3:55 pm
We’ve got that in Amsterdam and other major cities in Holland too. And I’m ok with it. The point is that if you have nothing to fear you have nothing to hide.
Over the past years people in big cities felt increasingly unsafe. Those cameras are part of a number of measurements to increase safety on the streets. And it works. People are feeling more safe and crime rates really go down. Think of all the shops that have to cope with thieves all the time. Those cameras can also spot people that try to pick the pockets of tourists.
But I wonder how people will respond to talking CCTV’s. It could have an opposite effect as well if the authorities should use it too easy.
September 24th, 2006 at 10:28 pm
that’s where you and I disagree, Frits, unfortunately.
I believe that soon, if we let this kind of thing go on, we will have no more rights and no more privacy.
I’m all for stopping crime…I think the talking cameras go too far…
September 25th, 2006 at 5:03 am
It’s not only because 9/11 that people are living in fear.
Here in Holland we’ve had multiple occasions of pointless violence.
In 1996 Joes Kloppenburg was beaten to death when he called a few drunk men to stop beating a vagabond. There were more of such pointless crimes over the years in Holland. That makes people afraid of speaking up. After such crimes people organized silent demonstrations to protest against it, thousands of people took part on it and put flowers and candles on the crime scene.
Maybe cameras with speakers go too far but anti-social people have to be stopped and if you don’t want to risk being molested for speaking up somebody else has to take care of it.
September 25th, 2006 at 9:34 am
Frits, there has always been violence in the world…it’s not getting better or worse…it’s the same as it’s always been but the media (mainstream)sensationilizes all the bad stuff…never any good stuff and so that gets people going and agreeing with governments who want to implement stategies to get rid of our personal freedoms…
what we have to remember as human beings in this wonderful world of ours is that for every 1 person in the world who is evil and violent, there are at least 10,000 good people praying for peace.
My point about this is this: we don’t need “nanny state” types of government. We are quite capable of using our own free will to decide what is good or bad for us. We deserve to live in a world where we are respected and allowed personal freedoms. Those cctvs , im my opinion, are the first step in stripping us of all our rights, and if we allow this continue, what’s next? Cameras in our homes?
September 25th, 2006 at 11:07 am
1 bad people for 10,000 good sounds ok to me, but the good must not suffer from the bad.
People really felt unsafe in the past years in Holland and we really feel more safe lately. It has been on the news.
Peaceful people choose for good things, but bad people still choose for bad things. Bad people don’t respect others and can be fysically violent. Good people can’t defend themselves against that. Events in the past have shown that.
Comparing cctv techniques with Orwellian situations is also a form of sensationalizing, just like cameras in homes.
The cctvs are operated by police officers that have been raised with the same values and traditions as the other citizans, here in Holland as in the UK. Those things are discussed thouroughly by police and politics before anything is implemented at all. They are well aware of having privacy taken up in the protocols.
The politicians in Holland and UK don’t want totallitarian situations. In Holland the government has been urged by the people to do something about safety and not keep talking forever about it. So they acted as the people very strongly wanted.
We have been screaming in Holland for more protection and more blue on the streets.
The green and alternative movements in Holland have had a serious drawback when Pim Fortyun was killed.
Pim Fortuyn was a right extremist who dared to speak up for strong immigration laws and other conservative or liberal matters. Pim Fortuyn was extremely popular and bound to win the government elections some time ago. Holland was getting too full. A vast number of people agreed with Pim. But he was killed by a green or alternative activist that decided Pim went too far. Who can you trust then?
The Dutch don’t need a nanny state either but we want to be saved from loonatics. We don’t want to be molested if we speak up for our values.
So we are still here, and our feet are still dry below the dikes
September 26th, 2006 at 8:32 am
truce! I still think there are other ways to protect people from crime…hire and train more police officers to walk the streets, organize citizen groups like we have Neighbourhood Watch here…
already those talking cctvs are being used to yell at people for silly things like riding a bike in a pedestrian area, littering, etc…meanwhile the real criminals (murderers, thieves, rapists, drug dealers, etc)…are most likely going underground…
September 30th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
ok Karen,
Like a French ambassador in Holland once said:
we just keep on loving you