Orwell was about 25 years off
I'd really like to believe that this isn't true, or that it has somehow been misreported:
Britain To Put CCTV Cameras Inside Private Homes Source: Wired
If you click on the link at the bottom of the article that cites the source, you learn that these are "Family Intervention Projects" to "ensure that children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals."
The State as parent. Your children are not yours to raise. The Corps is mother; the Corps is father.
Why are visits from Child Services not sufficient? Those advocates are trained to spot signs of trouble and make recommendations. They are already aware of when children are missing school and neglecting homework assignments. Why do they consider 24 hour surveillance to be necessary? Don't they have an interest in keeping those people employed?
Most importantly, where does it end? Forget sliding down the slippery slope: they've already landed on a plateau shared by Big Brother and the panopticon.
I found the address for the UK's Department for Children, Schools, and Families. I'd be tempted to encourage a campaign to mail copies of 1984 to them en masse to make a point, but I suspect that getting a large influx of packages from America would likely to cause them to dig their heels in further -- we wouldn't react terribly well to another country's meddling, and I don't imagine that they would, either.
I can't help but wish that someone in the Obama administration would discreetly direct a well-placed word or two toward someone of influence there, and yet ... who would I trust to carry that message? I'd like to think it'd be worthwhile to appeal to our elected officials, but I worry that an alarming percentage of them would consider it a good idea.
I don't write to Georgia's representatives any more because I live in an overwhelmingly red state. It would be an utter waste of postage. Tom Price, the grandstanding Republican who disrespectfully rolled his eyes during President Obama's first address, won my district with nearly 70% of the vote. In 2004, Amendment One passed with over 75% of the state's vote.
Nope, between much of the Right's disregard for civil liberties in the name of security, and much of the Left's overzealous desire to protect us from ourselves and our own messy, autonomous decisions, I fret that this could be just the sort of place where they could intersect.
It is very troubling.
I'll close with a quote from The Lord of the Rings:
Frodo: “I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.”
Gandalf: “So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”
If only that decision didn't feel so much like a Morton's Fork.
Britain To Put CCTV Cameras Inside Private Homes Source: Wired
If you click on the link at the bottom of the article that cites the source, you learn that these are "Family Intervention Projects" to "ensure that children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals."
The State as parent. Your children are not yours to raise. The Corps is mother; the Corps is father.
Why are visits from Child Services not sufficient? Those advocates are trained to spot signs of trouble and make recommendations. They are already aware of when children are missing school and neglecting homework assignments. Why do they consider 24 hour surveillance to be necessary? Don't they have an interest in keeping those people employed?
Most importantly, where does it end? Forget sliding down the slippery slope: they've already landed on a plateau shared by Big Brother and the panopticon.
I found the address for the UK's Department for Children, Schools, and Families. I'd be tempted to encourage a campaign to mail copies of 1984 to them en masse to make a point, but I suspect that getting a large influx of packages from America would likely to cause them to dig their heels in further -- we wouldn't react terribly well to another country's meddling, and I don't imagine that they would, either.
I can't help but wish that someone in the Obama administration would discreetly direct a well-placed word or two toward someone of influence there, and yet ... who would I trust to carry that message? I'd like to think it'd be worthwhile to appeal to our elected officials, but I worry that an alarming percentage of them would consider it a good idea.
I don't write to Georgia's representatives any more because I live in an overwhelmingly red state. It would be an utter waste of postage. Tom Price, the grandstanding Republican who disrespectfully rolled his eyes during President Obama's first address, won my district with nearly 70% of the vote. In 2004, Amendment One passed with over 75% of the state's vote.
Nope, between much of the Right's disregard for civil liberties in the name of security, and much of the Left's overzealous desire to protect us from ourselves and our own messy, autonomous decisions, I fret that this could be just the sort of place where they could intersect.
It is very troubling.
I'll close with a quote from The Lord of the Rings:
Frodo: “I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.”
Gandalf: “So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”
If only that decision didn't feel so much like a Morton's Fork.