Have you noticed how many stores and public places now have video cameras? They record everything going on around them. Sounds a bit like Orwell's 1984, doesn't it? Except--how many times have you seen a film clip of a crime in progress on the TV news? Using the cameras to identify criminals and protect private property isn't exactly Orwellian.
And then there are the Smartphones. Almost everyone has one and most of them can shoot video clips. In what amounts to an anti-Orwellian development, people use those smartphones to record acts of violence and unlawful activity such as police brutality. The videos, posted on the web, are seen by millions of people.
Unfortunately, many police officers don't seem to understand that the brutality they are accustomed to use without fear of reprisals is now permanently documented and subjected to public scrutiny.
It is mind-boggling that neither criminals nor the police seem to have grasped the impact of the new technology on their traditional method of operations. The crooks continue to pull off robberies under the eye of the camera. The cops continue to brutalize peaceful demonstrators as if they were invisible and unaccountable for their actions.
These developments certainly weren't foreseen by Orwell when he wrote his horrific novel.
What do you think about these developments?
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