Suspect Society: CBC Radio's Ideas documentary on surveillance
Salim sez, "This is part one CBC's radio's Ideas feature on how surveillance pervades western culture and contributes to a new age of urban militarization. Surveillance is the the new Authoritarianism. A profusion of monitoring is ushering in a new age of paranoid politics."
MP3: The Suspect Society on Ideas
(Thanks, Salim!)
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The future is gonna be a dull, grey, joyless and soulless place.
Welcome to the "everyone is a suspect" age.
This is not a place where I want to live or raise my kids.
There's been a story in the papers lately about a woman who was abducted from a local mall, in broad daylight, then killed. Today it comes out that the abduction was captured on a surveillance tape. All I could think is, "yeah? And that did her how much good, exactly?"
The one idea I got from this is that confidence men can really cleanup in this environment... who would question authority especially if it makes you a suspect simply to question... so any person with the inclination can claim to be something they are not, and take advantage of almost anyone. Or less illegal, but no less creepy, use any sort of line claiming that kids are being threatened by something and that they as parents need to be more vigilant else be thought of as bad parents, there is a gold mine of money to be made as long as you are not concerned about how you are making it.
Politics is a disease.
I used to enjoy the Cleveland Air Show, until I realized how militarized it had become. It used to be the Cleveland Air Races, but now it's just a loud, ridiculous show of force that reminds me of the footage I'd seen of the 1960's Soviet missiles on parade through Red Square. I'd rather see my tax dollars spent promoting philosophy classes in the schools.
Excellent series. Available as podcast