2014 is upon us. For a person who graduated from Georgia Tech in 1961, a year in which the class ring showed the same date right side up or upside down, the 21st century was a science fiction concept associated with Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film, “2001: A Space Odyssey.” To us George Orwell’s 1984 seemed so far in the future we would never get there. Now it is 30 years in the past.
Did we get there in Orwell’s sense? In terms of surveillance technology, we are far beyond Orwell’s imagination. In terms of the unaccountability of government, we exceptional and indispensable people now live a 1984 existence. In his alternative to the Queen’s Christmas speech, Edward Snowden made the point that a person born in the 21st century will never experience privacy. For new generations the word privacy will refer to something mythical, like a unicorn.
Many Americans might never notice or care. I remember when telephone calls were considered to be private. In the 1940s and 1950s the telephone company could not always provide private lines. There were “party lines” in which two or more customers shared the same telephone line. It was considered extremely rude and inappropriate to listen in on someone’s calls and to monopolize the line with long duration conversations.
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If Hillery gets in office, we will see the county collapse
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't matter who is in office or what party they CLAIM to be with....this economy, with the devaluing of the dollar, the conversion to part time no benefit jobs, and the very real and upcoming rejection of pension and retirement benefits (there is NO WAY these promises an be kept - no way), and several other factors will, without little doubt, collapse under its own mismanaged and unmanageable weight. You can be ready (if THAT is really possible), or you can be a victim.
ReplyDeleteAnd there will be a lot of victims.