“There’s No Telescreen!”

Late last week, an aspiring author asked a question in an authors’ group on Facebook, something along these lines: How will the government track us in the future?

Answers were varied, from ubiquitous smart phones and video cameras in public places, to insidious wiretaps wherever one might go.

My answer was this: We’ll self-report, checking in at every opportunity via technology we already have. The rebels will be the ones who opt out of checking in.

Then I read this today at aeon.co:

[Orwell] couldn’t have known how eager we’d be to shrink down our telescreens and carry them with us everywhere we go, or how readily we’d sign over the data we produce to companies that fuel our need to connect.

Spoopy.

Henry Cowles, author of this piece and assistant professor of history at the University of Michigan, goes on to say perhaps Orwell knew more than he let on.

He also mentions this, a quote I’d never heard before: “Who said ‘The customer is always right’? The seller—never anyone but the seller.” I’m trying to find the “wise man” who said this, but little luck so far.

Nevertheless . . .

If we enter a surveillance state – if we’re not there already – it’s going to be because we were willing to walk through that door on our own.

Utopias

I read a lot about utopias and a lot of utopian novels -- from Thomas More to George Orwell to Samuel Butler. And while most of them seem to mean well, few of them end well.

I know I'm leaning a lot on the world of fiction. But fiction mirrors reality, friends.

So it was interesting to read this Slate piece about the shortcomings of scientific utopia. And the reason for its failings come not in this article, but one from the New Era, just this month.

But first, Slate.

Here's the crux of sociologist Jeffrey Guhin's critique of astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson's proposal for a "rational," "science-based" utopia:

The myopia of scientism, its naïve utopianism and simplistic faith, bears an uncanny resemblance to the religious dogmatisms folks like Tyson and [atheist Richard] Dawkins denounce.

Previous to that, he says:

It’s striking how easily we forget the evil following “science” can do. So many times throughout history, humans have thought they were behaving in logical and rational ways only to realize that such acts have yielded morally heinous policies that were only enacted because reasonable people were swayed by “evidence.” Phrenology—the determination of someone’s character through the shape and size of their cranium—was cutting-edge science. (Unsurprisingly, the upper class had great head ratios.) Eugenics was science, as was social Darwinism and the worst justifications of the Soviet and Nazi regimes. Scientific racism was data-driven too, and incredibly well respected. Scientists in the 19^th century felt quite justified in claiming “the weight of evidence” supported African slavery, white supremacy, and the concerted effort to limit the reproduction of the lesser races.

I'm tired of living in a world that's dichotomized. Whoever says science or religion have to go it alone doesn't understand science or religion.

Election 2016 and Animal Farm

With both the Republican and Democratic parties finally having a clear path forward to the nomination of candidates for president, I have this to offer:

Defeated Bernie Bros sound so much like Donald Drumpf supporters I have a hard time telling who is who. They’re all anti-trade agreement. They all hate the media (though their names for the media are different; the Bros deride the “corporatist” media while the Drumpfs deride the “librul media”).

And both parties are going to have to grapple with the fact that they’re nominated individuals with the highest disapproval ratings of any candidates ever offered by any party.*

I will go on the record as saying I prefer neither candidate the parties are offering. Nor am I likely to vote Libertarian, as Libertarians generally, while nice people, are completely insane.

Anyway, I’ve been struggling for a way to describe how I feel about this election, until it hit me this morning: I don’t have to. George Orwell has already done so. See: 

"Gentlemen," concluded Napoleon, "I will give you the same toast as before, but in a different form. Fill your glasses to the brim. Gentlemen, here is my toast: To the prosperity of The Manor Farm! "

There was the same hearty cheering as before, and the mugs were emptied to the dregs. But as the animals outside gazed at the scene, it seemed to them that some strange thing was happening. What was it that had altered in the faces of the pigs? Clover's old dim eyes flitted from one face to another. Some of them had five chins, some had four, some had three. But what was it that seemed to be melting and changing? Then, the applause having come to an end, the company took up their cards and continued the game that had been interrupted, and the animals crept silently away. 

But they had not gone twenty yards when they stopped short. An uproar of voices was coming from the farmhouse. They rushed back and looked through the window again. Yes, a violent quarrel was in progress. There were shoutings, bangings on the table, sharp suspicious glances, furious denials. The source of the trouble appeared to be that Napoleon and Mr. Pilkington had each played an ace of spades simultaneously.

Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

And before anyone of any political stripe claims you saw the “All Animals Are Equal but Some Are More Equal Than Others” and believe you’re fighting the good fight, I say: HOGWASH.

Trump thought the system was rigged until he won. And Bernie Bros would not be complaining bitterly at all had their boy “clinched” anything this week rather than Hillary Clinton.

Do not tell me otherwise because I will never believe you. Remember, the “revolution” depicted in some versions of Orwell’s story DOES NOT HAPPEN in Orwell’s novel. The democratic socialists become indistinguishable from the totalitarians they replace (and this goes for any revolutionist to ruler journey you can offer).

*Or so the conventional wisdom goes, as it’s hard to pin these numbers down.

"For the Rest of Your Life"

“Mom, how long will this happen to me?”

“For the rest of your life.”

A Ferguson, Mo., mother explaining to her 12-year-old son why he should get used to being patted down and questioned by local police, simply because of the color of his skin.

Something like that happening to me as a 12-year-old would have scared me to death.

Something like that happening to my own 12-year-old kid would make me mad.

And then you see pictures like this.

And then you’re told to tell your kids not to be afraid of the police.

If I saw this coming down the street at me while at a peaceful protest, I’d be crapping my pants. This is not police protection, or even police presence. This is police intimidation, pure and simple.

I do not know what happened leading up to Michael Brown’s shooting death in Ferguson. I do not know the facts. I’m distrustful of what the police have to say because they’re seriously covering their asses right now. I’m distrustful of what witnesses said happened, because it’s known far and wide that witnesses above a certain age often report what they wanted to see, not what they actually saw.

This is what I see:

African-American families rightfully fearful of their local police force.

The local police force out in full riot gear, giving no one the appearance that they’re there to Serve and Protect.

If Ferguson, Mo., were my home town, I’d be ashamed. Ashamed of the looting and arson. Ashamed of a police force that thinks it has to pull out the heavy weaponry and arrest and harass journalists, let alone arresting and harassing those they’re paid to S&P. Good news came today when Missouri Go. Nixon pulled the St. Louis County Police out of Ferguson, substituting the highway patrol.

I've written a lot in the past few months about Aldous Huxley's vision of the world gone sour. Now suddenly George Orwell's police state rears its ugly head. Not sure which is worse, but I do know I'd rather see neither vision fulfilled.