Has Orwell's '1984' Come 22 Years Later?

[kpete]

Slashdot: Has Orwell's '1984' Come 22 Years Later?
gabec asks:

"This weekend my mother bought a grille lighter, something like this butane lighter. The self-scanner at Kroger's locked itself up and paged a clerk, who had to enter our drivers license numbers into her kiosk before we could continue. Last week my girlfriend bought four peaches. An alert came up stating that peaches were a restricted item and she had to identify herself before being able to purchase such a decidedly high quantity of the dangerous fruit. My video games spy on me, reporting the applications I run, the websites I visit, the accounts of the people I IM. My ISP is being strong-armed into a two-year archive of each action I take online under the guise of catching pedophiles, the companies I trust to free information are my enemies, the people looking out for me are being watched. As if that weren't enough, my own computer spies on me daily, my bank has been compromised, my phone is tapped--has been for years--and my phone company is A-OK with it. What's a guy that doesn't even consider himself paranoid to think of the current state of affairs?"

The sad state of affairs is that Big Brother probably became a quiet part of our lives a lot earlier. The big question now is: how much worse can it get?

http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/29/0223253

[Kagemusha]

1. Orwell's 1984 existed the day he wrote the book.

He just made it more explicit than it seemed in reality to draw attention. People didn't get it. They still don't.

[MrPrax]

9. 1948...

Ingsoc was English Socialism...etc etc

Figured folks at slash dot were a little brighter, but that book has been reinvented to fit an American perspective, so many times that much of the 'context' that is important to understanding it, is lost in some cheap B-Grade Sci-Fi dystopian intrepretation.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. Apparrently you are not in the minority for thinking about

this.... here is something I found you might find interesting.


http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=2318949


From George Orwell to reality TV - is surveillance to be feared or embraced? Constant scrutiny by surveillance cameras is usually seen as - at best - an invasion of privacy, and at worst an infringement of human rights. But in this radical new account of the uses of surveillance in art, performance and popular culture, John E McGrath sets out a surprising alternative: a world where we have much to gain from being the experience of being watched. In" Loving Big Brother," the author tackles head on the overstated claims of the crime-prevention and ant-terrorism lobbies. But he also argues that we can, and do, desire and enjoy surveillance, and that, if we can understand why this is, we may transform the effect that the experience has on our lives." Loving Big Brother" looks at a wide range of performance and visual artists, at popular TV shows and movies, and at our day to day encounters with surveillance, rooting its arguments in an accessible reading of cultural theory. This iconoclastic bookdevelops a notion of surveillance space - somewhere beyond the public and private, somewhere we will all soon live. It's a place we're just beginning to understand.

[sgxnk]

3. not really

orwell's 1984 was cautionary about big brother (the govt. )

contrary to popular belief, it is LITTLE BROTHER that holds the majority of private data on individuals

his novel, was not predictive, in that respect

it is (generally) private business (credit agencies, etc.) that compile, share, and hold FAR more sensitive private data on individuals do, than govt. agencies do

many privacy sensitive mags etc. have done great work on this. two that stand out are Wired Magazine

and reason magazine

www.reason.com

[babylonsister]

6. Yes, but the privates businesses are SHARING w/the government. nt

[sgxnk]

8. to some extent

to some extent, yes

however, i stand by my assessment

there is WAY more information available in private databases. and this info is often available to ALL citizens (not just govt.) with the payment of a fee

there are numerous websites, where for a $20 fee or so, you can investigate FAR more information on yer neighbor, etc. than law enforcement has.

[liberal N proud]

4. YES!

[Swamp Rat]

5. Isn't it obvious to everyone yet?

[KatyaR]

7. Can someone explain the peaches thing to me?

Were they "restricted" because they were in scarce quantity or what?

Peaches - the new terrorist weapon . . . .

[Kailassa]

10. Perhaps "they" are setting procedures into place so that only

approved people can buy luxuries.