One of the founding principals of democracy was protection through anonymity. With the relatively recent advent of electronic search and seizure, passive surveillance and record checks and balances there is an instinctive hesitation of self preservation on the part of the patriot to wonder who is watching and who will see his political message weather by blog post, petition signature or some day, electronic voting. The insecurity is justified as the prevailing landlords make no secret of their content monitoring and list making of suspect individuals. It is no accident that in order to sign a petition you must give your name and full and current address. The practice first adopted by Hitler during his rise to power, circulating a false petition to identify jews who were apposed to the rise of the Third Reich. This petition of course made up the first targets for round up and re-education.
Is it any wonder then that when confronted with requirements to show identification to speak ones voice that we hesitate and wonder if the wrong people will hear? Is this then the mechanism to being down democracy in which case it must be the goal of the currently powerful to move us slowly to a controllable police state. The 1st and most important amendment provisioning and protecting free speech was written to support the continuation of democracy. Though though the decades of eroding liberties and the slippery slope of regulation one can measure the decomposition of our democracy by how little we can say without repercussions or regulation.
Technology has played an ever present role in the manifestation of the close minded police state. With warrantless wiretaps on every phone call that moves through US telecommunication carriers, to data duplication within primary internet core switches, to library monitoring of checked books and online purchases of flagged materials, we are known and monitored with every expression of our so called free thought. There is no anonymity in cyberspace, just as there is none in the signing of a petition. To rally against a presidents speech one is corralled into pre determined protest zones, away from he media, away from the supporters, away from the impressionable eyes of would be supporters. And rather held under firm gaze of the “security” forces perpetrating the illusion of freedom of speech, and making careful note of every face in attendance.
It is no coincidence that technology tools are always under development to make observation of individuals easier and more efficient. To presume the government (not that they make any secret of it) isn't using these technologies is ignorant to say the least. The real question is what is the ultimate goal of these technologies. To presume that the technology to scan and identify faces in a crowd wouldn't be used in such a manner is ignorant to say the least. As this is the only reason the technology was developed just as “speak to dial” and “voice transcription” software was developed not to help doctors transcribe notes, but to make the mass listening of voice conversations easier by reducing the man power to do so.
The only questions anymore is when. When will the switch flip and the curtain get pulled up. Already haliburton has built 20 odd some concentration camps around the country, complete with train stations, guard towers and staffed by the military. They sit empty and idle for now. Tens upon thousands of plastic coffins stacked high in fields waiting for bodies to fill them by the score. State government changing laws to allow for internment without due process for biological disasters..like swine flu. Its one thing to point fingers and claim conspiracy... its another to see pictures of the camps, the coffins, and the orders signed by presidents to build and fund them. I don't know the answer to the when, though my intuition tells me....soon.
