Like many school children I studied George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four for my 'O' level English literature. I enjoyed the book but wouldn't class it amongst my favorites and I recall at the time that I thought the future postulated extremely unlikely.
Unfortunately it appears I was wrong and very wrong.
The date may be wrong by around fifty years but not by much. We continue in the UK and Europe more generally our march towards Oceania. It's no coincidence that's Orwell's ministry of truth is thought to have been modeled on the BBC.
This government like all before it and all states understands that information is control. One of the defining aspects of civilization is the keeping of records, the growth of bureaucracy and census data. From the earliest times governments have understood the maxim that knowledge is power. After all what is the Doomsday book other than an early medieval national data register. The very act of collecting and using and requiring the data predicates control.
So now we have a government which seems to not be using Nineteen Eighty-Four as warning which it clearly was but as a template for the perfect society.
The sheep fail to see the connection between ID cards, CCTV on every corner (most surveilled nation in the world), national DNA database, road pricing & tracking and emissions control. The chip and biometric data will allow an audit trail of all your activity available to whoever is registered as interested parties, mainly petty bureaucrats, the police and private companies. Of course the system is infallible so any incorrect data will be up to you to prove is incorrect, an impossibility as you'll be in a catch 22. At the minimum they'll use this information for the levy of extra taxes making every individual more dependent on the state, or to claim money from you don't owe. We all know how efficient the Revenue is.
All this functionality is to make us servants of the state rather than the other way around.
The main argument is fear, fear of terrorism and crime of course this is the same argument Big Brother makes regarding the wars that Oceania is fighting. So we have streams of legislation, shut down of debate, thought and speech control to ensure the populace is over time reduced to the state of compliant proles.
The other argument is that these are common place in Europe and they are but do not hold as much data. But ever since Runnymede the English state has operated on the basis that all rights belong to the individual, expect those curtailed for the common good by the state. In Europe on the other hand the rights of the individual are those granted to them by the state.
This difference is best summed up by the bard: This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,--
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.
Given that we are supposed to be a 'Sceptred Isle' precisely because our traditional compact has ensured in the long term the freedom and prosperity of all. Britain gave birth to the modern world, therefore I fail to see how conforming to a model which is renowned for the rise of tyrannies and despotism is a good idea.
So the government intends to introduce ID cards by stealth, the BBC (ministry of truth) conducted is usually stacking of the Question Time panel and audience to do the soft soap. They want people to think it is not important that it is about security and cnvenience. It's about control.
Even if your trust this governments motives which I do not, think about what a future totalitarian regime can do with this data. Stalinist Russia and the Nazis' were great record keepers. The Nazi's used Dutch census data to help deport the Jews.
We should never make it easy for the state to control our lives. The past 40 years should have shown us that. Even those with the best intentions are fundamentally incapable.
One of the definitions of tyranny is the arbitrary exercise of power by the state, we're not there yet but increasingly laws are framed at so many levels to ensure that no one is sure what an offence is. The sheer volume of statute is designed to stun the electorate to allow the arbitrary exercise of power. The breaking of electoral promises such as the referendum is a part of this slippery slope. Making laws complicated is part of this slope, how condescending is the 'you will not understand' comment. The Ministry of truth trotted out a comedian on Question time to say this very thing last night. How appropriate.
The only thing that comforts me is at least two of the parties have gone off the idea but since it is an EU requirement there is only one way to ensure our long term freedom.
I believe that Nineteen Eighty Four is on the reading list. I am will devour it this time with its greater relevance.
I do not wish to die in Oceania and certainly not for my descendants to live in it!
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