Big Brother is Watching You

An old army buddy, Major Paranoia, points to the ushering in of the Patriot Act in the period succeeding September the Eleventh, and the obvious conspiracies involved. Predicting that it is formulated to allow the eventual suspension of civil liberties. Subsequently there will be wiretapping, invasions, renditions, and containment camps arrayed to operate outside the normal bounds of our laws. All while claiming to conduct ourselves within the world from a moral 'high ground'. Si Fallor tells Paranoia that our nation would never behave in such ways as those actions would only give grounds to the terrorists we claim to struggle against.

Soon Big Brother will be watching you, utters the Major in warning.
So do many who've never cracked Orwell. Government acts in the gray haze of contradiction as the populace clamors for security and privacy. Predict violence. Monitor not me.

Si Fallor appeared on not less than seven surveillance systems yesterday, between the gas station and the office parking lot. Made us wonder that we allow private enterprise to do out of 'necessity' what we allow no to those whom we appoint to look over us. At this point it struck Si Fallor that Major Paranoia was wrong. We didn't open the door to Big Brother after September the Eleventh.


On March 3, 1991, a bystander videotaped the brutal beating by police of a young man in Los Angeles, California. The evidence and subsequent outcome inflamed many. Either by proving what they already felt to be true or by showing them for the first time an injustice they couldn't believe still occurred in these modern times. This is when, Si Fallor realizes, we began to Big Brother ourselves.

Bulky cameras and planning are no longer necessary.
Modern technology has placed video recording in even the cheapest of cell phones that most everyone carries with them.

In China this ability has allowed the public to know what is really going on in their world of heavily government controlled media. (As if by blocking internet searches of 'human rights' they might not know.) Major Paranoia says that this fact is why everything is moving to digital and wireless. (Easier for Big Brother to monitor and process via banks of NSA computers.)

Si Fallor posits that this trend, although considered useful in extreme circumstances, is ultimately detrimental. Better people will not be made. Though perhaps more clever ones. Under constant surveillance everyone will behave inappropriately. These are the daily mistakes we make in the heat of the moment that we kick ourselves for upon reflection. The self realized faults that we utilize to grow as individuals. We will all be villains when taken out of context. This self evident fact is why we rail against anything that even hints at 'the man' monitoring us. Then again we are now doing it to ourselves.

Big Brother is watching, and Big brother is You!

Si Fallor Sum