In his classic work 1984, George Orwell saw a day when government eventually would morph into a ubiquitous, all-seeing, all-controlling Big Brother.
In his classic work 1984, George Orwell saw a day when government eventually would morph into a ubiquitous, all-seeing, all-controlling Big Brother.
While the British author’s prognostication might have been off a few decades, his fictitious view of the future is slowly, but surely, becoming reality.
Conservatives, liberals and libertarians don’t agree on much. However, there is one subject that most of them see eye-to-eye on, and that is our world is becoming more monitored and more regulated with each passing day. And while government isn’t always the culprit, we nonetheless are being watched.
Surveillance cameras abound. Most of our movements can be traced by surveillance cameras strategically positioned in parking lots, stores and ATMs.
If while going through airport security you are randomly selected or happen to have the tiniest bit of metal on you, you are going to be subjected to scrutiny just short of a strip search. And, depending on the circumstance, you might be asked to do that as well.
Have you noticed the packaging on most items today? It takes special tools and training to open a new CD or DVD. And make sure all the security tags are removed from clothing or you will have the joy of hearing a store’s anti-theft detection alarm go off.
Don’t expect security measures to decrease anytime soon. In fact, they likely will become more intrusive. With identity theft on the rise, expect finger print, face print, eye scanning and voice recognition technologies to become even more a part of our lives.
Not only does the monitoring and regulation add a certain level of discomfort to our lives, but the price of everything is impacted. There is a significant cost for all the surveillance and special packaging we endure, and it is all passed on to the consumer.
(An aside, I find it quite amazing that while our government sees fit to regulate even how much water our toilets can flush, that it appears unconcerned that our borders have become a sieve through which illegal aliens flow with relative ease. Ah, but that is a subject for another column.)
I, like many conservatives, liberals and libertarians, do not like being watched every time I turn around. However, given the reality of crime in our world and the added threat of terrorism, what are the alternatives?
Is there a solution that is better than constant surveillance and regulation?
Interestingly enough, many of the founders of the United States articulated the antidote to Big Brother more than 200 years ago.
“Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom,” observed Benjamin Franklin. “As nations become more corrupt and vicious they have more need of masters.”
“Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other,” said John Adams, the country’s second president.
“Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them or a power without them; either by the Word of God or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or by the bayonet,” stated Robert Winthrop, who served as speaker of the House of Representatives in the mid-1800s.
The words of these three men are representative of the consensus of thought that existed at the time America was founded, which was that the Bible and the practice of religion are necessary in order to have an orderly and free society.
In other words, in order for democracy to function, a people must regulate their behavior. It either will come via a self-governance based on an accountability to God, or it will be imposed from without by an accountability to government.
For more than four decades secularists of all stripes – conservative, liberal and libertarian – have been seeking to drive religions influence, especially that of Christianity, away from the public square. And now they decry the threat posed by surveillance and regulation?
If democracy, as envisioned by America’s founders, is to survive and thrive, Americans must learn to live either with the fear of God or the fear of government. As for me and my house, I choose the former.
However, one or the other is inevitable. Just ask George Orwell.