The NSA scandal: empathy for Winston Smith
News that the NSA has been collecting and mining information regarding our phone calls and Internet usage has reminded me of a couple things.
The first is something that happened a few days after I moved to Santa Cruz, when I was eating breakfast at McDonalds with my mom, uncle, and my uncle’s girlfriend. It was, I believe, the day after the fifth anniversary of 9/11. All the networks had aired retrospectives and our emotions and memories from that day had resurfaced. The attacks on New York and Washington, DC dominated the national psyche again — as well as the measures taken afterward to prevent more attacks. My uncle, a staunch red Republicrat, brought up the PATRIOT Act and the powers of surveillance it granted. I remember he said this: “I don’t have a problem with it. I’ve got nothing to hide.”
The second thing is Winston Smith, the main character in Nineteen Eighty-Four, journaling in an alcove in his apartment, hidden from the prying eye of the “telescreen.” I have always felt sorry for Smith and the thought of such invasive surveillance has revolted me ever since. (Not that I was a fan before. I think that scene near the beginning of the book made me realize such a thing was possible.) Years after reading Nineteen Eighty-Four (I only read half, shamefully), I wondered how such a system of surveillance could be implemented. How could a spying “telescreen” be installed in every household? It would, I hoped, never be possible to impose such a thing; people would never allow cameras and microphones to be forcefully installed in their homes. Instead, I thought, the way to do it would be to somehow make people want to be monitored, want to have surveillance equipment installed in their homes. It was a scary revelation and I am reminded of it whenever I look at the built-in camera on my laptop.
What are my thoughts about the NSA scandal? First of all, I am surprised by the weak public outcry. People seem to be waking up to it after a week of media hammering, but it seems the IRS scandal generated more vitriol. Though the IRS’ increased scrutiny targeted groups with a conservative agenda, the NSA has been keeping tabs on everybody. That is not cool in my book. Unlike my uncle, I do have a problem with it. There has to be a way to preserve peace without trampling on our liberties and privacy.
(Though I could be wrong, I am pretty sure my uncle has a problem with government surveillance now. If he has changed his mind, I bet it has something to do with the person living in the White House and the party he belongs to. Similarly, I am sure it is the same reason why many blue Republicrats stopped caring for four years.)
Ironically, though I do not like the fact the NSA has been tracking and data mining my calls and Internet usage, it does not anger me. I have (much like many others, apparently) shrugged my shoulders and thought, “It’s not like we didn’t assume so already.” That is probably the most alarming thing about the NSA scandal: it seems our speculation has given way to indifference. So what do we do now that we know the government is doing what we assumed it was doing for so long? So far, it seems, we will continue as if we are still blissfully cynical. That is equally uncool in my book, so I think it is probably time to voice my disapproval before I end up hiding in an alcove to write in my journal.
