The Red Brick Times

"They know when you've been sleeping, they know when you're awake, they know if you've been bad or good so be good for goodness sake..."
Posted 8:04 AM by whatley (5) comments

       Comments:

From an ABC News article:

"Former East Germany's Ministry for State Security, known as the Stasi, was the most comprehensive internal security operation of the Cold War.

The Stasi used a widespread network of informants to spy on the country's 16 million people, and secret files were kept on up to 6 million East German citizens, almost one-third of the entire population.

The agency monitored all phone calls from the West, censored the mail; barely any organization in East Germany escaped infiltration.

Many East Germans were persuaded or forced to spy on their own spouses, relatives and friends. Torture was an accepted method of gaining information from potential subversives, and the agency was authorized to keep tens of thousands of secret files on anyone it judged to be a threat."

Sing along with me: "..And we thought it couldn't happen here."

# posted by  whatley : August 17, 2007 8:35 AM
 
Aren't these forms of behavior (in individuals) usually treated with psychotropic drugs in insurance-supported institutions? But it must be OK if the Government does it, since they can get away with it. Maybe if I had a 1000-year lifespan, I would be more patient and philosophical about waiting for inevitable change to sweep things away. But for now - welcome to the fishbowl. Be human but don't deviate from the local temporal "norm".

# posted by  Andy : August 17, 2007 10:51 AM
 
There's more. "Behavior Detection Officers."

# posted by  whatley : August 17, 2007 11:03 AM
 
1984, Part 1, chapter 7:
"If there was hope, it must lie in the proles, because only there in those swarming disregarded masses, 85 per cent of the population of Oceania, could the force to destroy the Party ever be generated. The Party could not be overthrown from within. Its enemies, if it had any enemies, had no way of coming together or even of identifying one another. Even if the legendary Brotherhood existed, as just possibly it might, it was inconceivable that its members could ever assemble in larger numbers than twos and threes. Rebellion meant a look in the eyes, an inflexion of the voice, at the most, an occasional whispered word. But the proles, if only they could somehow become conscious of their own strength, would have no need to conspire. They needed only to rise up and shake themselves like a horse shaking off flies. If they chose they could blow the Party to pieces tomorrow morning. Surely sooner or later it must occur to them to do it? And yet-!"

We're the proles baby.

# posted by  whatley : August 17, 2007 11:21 AM
 
Hey, why don't they have "driving detection officers" who study what the twitchy lane changes, the sudden acceleration surges, the no-signal-in-your-face incursions mean? With the amount of bogus pseudo security being thrown at an insoluble problem, the highways could be better. Or maybe the highways are the only places left where those driven insane by air travel can express feelings?

# posted by  Andy : August 17, 2007 2:04 PM
 
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