On Internet Searches: Big Brother is Watching You

George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984 looks increasingly prescient as evidenced by the slippery slope transformation of the US into a police state.

From Simon Black of the Sovereign Man:

In any discussion about privacy, there’s invariably someone who says, “Well, if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.”

What a bunch of baloney. This may be one of the most ignorant statements ever uttered yet it’s held by a wide majority of people who still trust their governments.

Yesterday the Guardian newspaper published yet another example of why this thinking is completely fallacious.

On Wednesday of this week, Michele Catalano and her husband, both residents of Long Island, were greeted by a knock at the door by a counter-terrorism task force.

Apparently their Google searches had aroused intense suspicion. She was looking for pressure cookers online. Her husband was searching for backpacks.

Ordinarily those two items would seem completely harmless. But in such an absurd, security-conscious world where finger-nail clippers are considered deadly weapons, a pressure cooker and a backpack are viewed as vital tools in a terrorist’s toolkit… practically WMDs.

And so, Big Brother’s crew of six government agents arrived to the family’s home with weapons in holster, and their vehicles tactically positioned to block any exit from the premises.

The husband was questioned, and the agents searched the house looking for any other terrorist clues.

And in their conversation, the agents proclaimed that they do this “about 100 times a week.”

Apparently this is what passes as a free society these days, where even the most harmless online interactions end up being scrutinized by armed agents.

And thanks to a never-ending and expanding apparatus of online surveillance, governments have the means to monitor… almost everyone.

Of course, they want us to think that we have nothing to fear as long as we have nothing to hide. But a rational, thinking person has got to see the writing on the wall at this point and realize how out of control the police state has become.

Remember, there are a number of ways to safeguard your web browsing, search experience, email, and phone calls. And we’ve put a lot of great resources together for you in this free guide, something that we call ‘How to give the NSA the finger.’

In the 1984 novel, when asked by a skeptical Outer Party member (Winston Smith) to a Inner Party official (O'Brien) on how Power is used to control others, the latter's reply: (bold mine)  (quote from Thirdworldtraveler.com)

By making him suffer. Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing. Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress toward more pain. The old civilizations claimed that they were founded on love and justice. Ours is founded upon hatred. In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement. Everything else we shall destroy- everything. Already we are breaking down the habits of thought which have survived from before the Revolution. We have cut the links between child and parent, and between man and man, and between man and woman. No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any longer. But in the future there will be no wives and no friends. Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen. The sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card. We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now. There will be no loyalty, except loyalty toward the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science. When we are omnipotent we shall have no more need of science. There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness. There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always-do not forget this, Winston-always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face-forever." 

Big Brother is Watching You