Big Brother is here and his name is David Cameron!

The Orwellian world of Big Brother is already here

It crept up on us whilst we were watching

Blinded by matters inconsequential

Fed to us by men insubstantial

New Speak re-branded as political correctness

To cover Big Brother’s encroachment.

You are just a number in this dark new world

Not a free person as once was the case

You are nothing but a unit, an insignificant cog

In the dark menacing colossus of the Big Brother machine

No freedom

No rights.

Rights given with one hand

Are taken away by the other when you become re-branded

And set adrift on an ocean of obscurity

Visible yet invisible

Heard yet unheard

At one with the homogenous herd.

Our world is dark and colourless

Menace fills the shadows

Under the gaze of the all-seeing eye of Big Brother

Who put the menace there

And drained all the colour from our lives

Robbing us of our individuality, our hopes, our dreams.

We did not heed the warning

Of Big Brother’s approach

Given to us by the prophet Orwell

Too late to deny it

Too late to regret our folly

Too late to stop the damned infernal Big Brother machine.

© Myles Cook, 8/12/08

In yet another move towards a State in which individual freedom is a distant memory, the ConDem Empire is about to push through plans to literally spy on everyone in the UK – their e-mails, their internet history and their text messages.  The ConDem plans will make it extremely difficult for individuals to exercise their freedom of expression, something the UK is supposed to pride itself of having.  Where will this dark road take us, I wonder? 

Cameron’s idea is that the ability to read individual’s internet activity and text messages will enable the security forces to catch terrorists and the police to catch sex offenders who prey on children.  This may well be a possibility but the UK has the highest concentration of CCTV cameras in the world with it impossible to walk down the street without being caught on camera three or four times at the very least.  Did the cameras stop the 7/7 bombings in London?  Of course not.  And snooping on the internet indiscriminately will have no less affect.  Take, for example, someone who decides to look up Adolf Hitler’s grand opus, “Mein Kampf” as I just have; this individual may be an extreme right-wing, Nazi sympathiser or, like me, someone who wants to read the book out of a simple interest in aberrant psychological thought processes.  It may even be a student who is writing a dissertation on Adolf Hitler’s prose style or his life.  If the ConDems have their way, the mere fact that I even mentioned “Mein Kampf” in this blog will have alarm bells ringing at GCHQ who will, no doubt, flag me as an extreme right-wing activist and will now follow my every move on the internet.  Well, to GCHQ I say this – I have done nothing wrong and do not intend to ever do anything wrong so fuck off and leave me alone and could you pass along the same message to Cameron?

Yes, there is a case for targeting certain websites – religious extremist websites who preach hatred for the West and encourage violence as part of a Holy Jihad, websites that are hangouts for paedophiles and sex offenders and the Conservative Party’s website (LOL) – these are websites that are begging for stronger control; there is also a case for targeting the e-mails and text messages of terrorist suspects, extremists, paedophiles and other sex offenders but there is no case whatsoever for the indiscriminate monitoring of all internet and text message communication.

If we do not draw a line in the sand - right here, right now – who knows where it will end?  Will we see a future in which there are jack-booted storm troopers marching down every street?  A future, perhaps, in which the very thoughts we think are subject to the most draconian measures if we dare to utter them?  Sounds a lot like Germany in the 1930s and 1940s.

If the ConDems get their way, we are one step closer to a dark future of Thought Police and the completely homogenous mass-mindedness that crushes individuality, destroys freedom of speech and expression; a future that our forefathers gave their lives to save us from.

I am gladdened that telepaths are a thing of science-fiction so that, at least for now, there is one place that is free.  That said, I’m sure Cameron has a large number of scientists working to create telepaths as we speak, LOL.  Keep thinking your own wonderful thoughts because you never know when you will not have that option.

Until next time…