Journal #9

After reading Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, I noticed far too many similarities between the story he told and the world we live in today. The use of Xbox and the Xnet were an interesting parallel to our current world. After the attacks of September 11th, the world changed how it sees itself. America changed in the name of Homeland Security. We were all compliant with the changes thinking they were serving the greater good, something our society tends to strive for. After the devastation was cleaned up and our minds were rid of the thoughts of another attack, we start looking at the changes we have made and wonder; what are we risking?
The many things we have had to endure has become more of a threat that security. Everyone has to go through an extensive security check before entering an airplane, including old people and children. I understand wanting to check everyone, but do you really think the generation that fought World War II would try to blow up a plane full of innocent people? The government started saying they were listening in to phone calls that could be possible threats. How would they know which phone call was a threat unless they checked them all? The government, in the guise of security and safety, has taken away many of our rights of privacy without opposition. The reason people are afraid to stand up is they are afraid to be called a terrorist. If someone were to oppose, they would be immediately labeled a terrorist trying to hide something, when that something is his/her privacy! There was a big problem years ago with being considered a communist and people would do anything they could to avoid being “black listed”.
This kind of behavior is not new; people have always been afraid of being labeled as anything outside of the crowd and seen as a threat. Sometimes when we think the government is on our side, they could be taking advantage of our willingness to comply with new rules even when those rules are taking rights from us. Governments use the public’s fear against them when they want to have more power. Governments and people of power always want more and get it in any way they can, even if it takes lying to the public about things like nuclear weapons. The Bush campaign flat out lied to the American public when they knew there were nuclear weapons in Iraq, seeing as how the American public was ready for revenge, we cheered our leaders on to take out Iraq and eliminate where the terrorists are being harbored. Turns out there were no nuclear weapons and we were all taken advantage of.
We really have to be careful of what is really being used as a safety precaution and what is just another reason to peer into the lives of innocent civilians. If we do not keep an eye on what our government is doing, we will allow them to have even more control over us and they will be seen more of a threat than an ally. Doctorow really made this story believable with his many references to things we have in our world now. His story is a bit horrifying, but I could see it really happening today under the circumstances we are under now. Hopefully we can get this government to work with us like it was originally designed, rather than victimize the public.