Into A Prison of Our Own Making

by moonwolf | March 18, 2008 at 12:50 pm | 462 views | add comment

OPINION: We are sleepwalking into the ever tightening trap of an all-pervasive surveillance society; our own often baseless anxieties set out like bait within cages to trick us to enter, we pull the steely doors closed behind us and only then realization dawns as we hear the ominous sound of the bolt on the lock as it automatically clicks home.

Life has always been a risky business, always we have been faced with the possibility of terrorism or some other violence coming upon us from the darkness. The most frightening aspect of modern life is not the possibility of violence of this nature, but the creeping authoritarianism which those who would control us are slowly pouring into our lives with our own invitation and assistance.

There are two aspects to this dilemma which, on their own do not raise any flags, but when taken together should jolt us into wakefullness and point us, clear-eyed toward the hard truths of what is coming. First, history shows that bureaucracies and their leaders, since time immemorial, have never been benign and well-meaning, that they have always and will continue to misuse the authority we give them, and turn it upon us in their pursuit of power and control, and always under the patriarchal guise of "For your own good!"

The second and most chilling factor is that with modern technology and weapons, the possibility of a truly Orwellian control over the population is very real. In the past societies have been able to throw off the shackles of oppression often at great cost, but with the tools available that we so blithely buy and place in the hands of our 'leaders' in our blind need for convenience and 'security', we are slowly, incrementally picking up a loaded gun and placing it against our own heads, taking ourselves hostage, and walking ourselves into a prison of our own making, one from which there may be no escape. I'll take my chances with the terrorists thank you very much! How about you?

Remember the movie 1984? The picture accompanying this story, so similar to those adorning dripping walls in that dystopian cinematic vision, is an actual poster currently placed throughout the London Underground. Coincidence? Maybe, but then again.... Click on it to see the full, chilling image. If the blatant message conveyed doesn't give us pause for sober thought about where our supposedly 'free and open' western societies are being taken then maybe the inside of a cage really is a better, safer place for all of us.

-moonwolf

The Surveillance Society. The New Authoritarianism. The Age of Paranoid Politics. These are just a few of the ways writers and thinkers describe the age we’re now living in. The signs of anxiety and fear in this post 9-11 era are all around us. School lock-downs are called the new fire-drill. Recently, many schools boards in Canada made rehearsing the lock-down mandatory. The number of security staff in schools is increasing every year. By 2010 for example, there will be more security guards than teachers in American schools. But, the uniforms aren’t just being worn by security staff. More and more American public schools have adopted uniforms for students. Meanwhile the U.S. army is embedding itself in schools - targeting younger and younger students for recruitment. In Canada recruitment comes through video games that inform, entertain and seduce “action-focused males starting at 17 years old”.