TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Koppel: Take My Privacy, Please!

Re: Koppel: Take My Privacy, Please!

hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
14 Jun 2005 13:09:48 -0700

Monty Solomon wrote:

> By TED KOPPEL

> THE Patriot Act - brilliant! Its critics would have preferred a less
> stirring title, perhaps something along the lines of the Enhanced
> Snooping, Library and Hospital Database Seizure Act. But then who,
> even right after 9/11, would have voted for that?

This was an excellent article.

I wonder if kids today read 1984 in school as we did. Even if they
do, does the now old title lower the book's impact?

IIRC, the book was written soon after WW II reflecting on the changes
in society coming in both England and the Soviet Union. England was
introducing television and having the govt much more involved in
people's lives. The Soviets were totalitarian--people were dirt poor
and every aspect of life was controlled by the govt. England also had
the V-2 experience. WW II ended with east and west facing each other.

Since much of this history has changed and other parts become so
distant, I wonder if the book is as meaningful toward young readers
today.

We don't have nuclear war hanging over our heads as in the 1950s and
1960s and the conflicts between the west/China/USSR.

I wonder if it bothers people that so much of their daily movements is
tracked by CCTV cameras everywhere they go -- in schools, on the job,
in stores, and along the road. People have been arrested wrongly
based on CCTV viewings (a school principal was fired after being
"seen" alone in a room with a student).

On the one hand, I suppose the cameras could clear us if we were
accused of a crime by providing us with an alibi proving we were where
we said we were.

But on the other hand, if we happened to be near a crime scene when it
occured, could we be falsely accused of that crime (like the
principal)?

Does anyone out there think this lack of privacy and constant
electronic and data surveillance is a good thing?

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