Oh Well, Mr. Orwell

When it was published in 1949, George Orwell’s then futuristic book – Nineteen Eighty-Four – sent chills down readers’ backs, spawning songs, books, television programs and even an opera. The technology depicted in this novel placed video screens and cameras into every nook and cranny of human existence.

This notion of pervasive government intrusion into the most intimate personal moments in the lives of its citizens even changed our lexicon forever: “The effect of Nineteen Eighty-Four on the English language is extensive; the concepts of Big Brother, Room 101, the Thought Police, thoughtcrime, unperson, memory hole (oblivion), doublethink (simultaneously holding and believing contradictory beliefs) and Newspeak (ideological language) have become common phrases for denoting totalitarian authority. Doublespeak and groupthink are both deliberate elaborations of doublethink, while the adjective "Orwellian" denotes "characteristic and reminiscent of George Orwell's writings" especially Nineteen Eighty-Four. The practice of ending words with ‘-speak’ (e.g. mediaspeak) is drawn from the novel. Orwell is perpetually associated with the year 1984; in July 1984 an asteroiddiscovered by Antonín Mrkos was named after Orwell.” Wikipedia

By today’s standards, Orwell’s vision of the future was either prescient or just didn’t go far enough with the technology that is deployed, everywhere, today. The book presents an ultimate-totalitarian regime, controlling every aspect of a human life, demanding allegiance and adherence to social values of a twisted society. Written in the aftermath of Hitler’s Germany, Nineteen Eighty-Four seems to define total societies like North Korea or the personal intrusive observation of associated with the People’s Republic of China or modern Russia. Or, if you will, the National Security Agency’s Prism surveillance system “leaked” by security-cleared U.S. contractor-employee, Edward Snowden. Walk around big cities in England and look up; cameras are almost everywhere.

In early August, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State released a “travel alert” for Americans everywhere throughout the month of August, closing 22 U.S. embassies (and lots of other U.S. consulates and missions) for a few days across North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia based on surveillance of al Qaeda operatives in Yemen. The threat was of one or more “Mumbai-style” attacks or suicide bombings against American targets wherever found. Surveillance – this one overseas – proved its worth.

But Congress, from both sides of the aisle, squirmed in the thought of the government’s examining phone calls, emails and other electronic communications with minimal judicial review (short of real warrants) inside the United States itself. Major communications carriers – companies like Verizon to name but one – have been asked fully to cooperate with these governmental efforts which embrace American citizens, their communications and their geolocations. And evidence of that “cooperation” is everywhere. Was this al Qaeda announcement intended to blunt Congressional criticism and allow the NSA free reign to pursued unbridled surveillance?

The NSA is riding high. Congress failed to muster enough votes to limit its actions. Foreign governments, even our closest allies, have railed at information that this U.S. surveillance has extended to them. Other U.S. government agencies are frothing at the mouth in search of NSA data. “Agencies working to curb drug trafficking, cyberattacks, money laundering, counterfeiting and even copyright infringement complain that their attempts to exploit the security agency’s vast resources have often been turned down because their own investigations are not considered a high enough priority, current and former government officials say… Intelligence officials say they have been careful to limit the use of the security agency’s troves of data and eavesdropping spyware for fear they could be misused in ways that violate Americans’ privacy rights.” New York Times, August 3^rd.

But folks in the know assert that the protestations about protecting privacy are nothing more than words, that the extent of available information that is actually being accessed from U.S. citizens in the United States and reviewed is massive and, regardless of any possible limitations that Congress may pass in the future, will continue unabated. The fear of being prosecuted for espionage and aiding the enemy – evidenced in the recent court martial of Army Private Bradley Manning – will make discovering any such excesses that much more difficult in the future. Congress is still squirming. The Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches and seizures is rolling over… in its grave (?).

I’m Peter Dekom, and the balance between full information on whatever the government chooses to pursue vs. warranted surveillance has yet to be achieved.