by Carzal » April 15th, 2008, 5:43 pm
*shakes head*
Bad can result from pretty well anything. For that matter, why have microwaves or cell phones when they have been basically proven to incrase peoples chances of cancer?
Personally, I don't mind if the government bugs my phone. Who cares if they can hear what I'm doing, know where I'm going?
The thing is, if a totalitarian government gets into power in western countries, they can only do that through an incredibly powerful cult of personality through the military, and a hell of alot of money. Certain basic democratic ideals have been ingrained into western culture with a jack-hammer; the most traumatizing event the world has seen, World War Two, was essentially a war (in the beginning at least) between democratic nations and a nation where democracy had been curtailed. Right after that, the Cold War lasted for a good fifty years, and one of the main elements of that was that in the Soviet Union, people did not have the right to self determination.
Does this mean that a dictator couldn't take over England, France, Canada, the U.S.? Of course not. What it does mean is that in order for someone to do that they need much more support from the military and much more wealth than you would need in a country with little or no history of democratic ideals, such as, say, China. Or North Korea.
And if the government already has such incredible military control, there is little that you can do already, aside from mass uprisings, which cameras wouldn't be able to stop.
Meanwhile, this technology advances the governments ability to keep the peace, which is it's primary concern; to create a stable society and keep order within it. In London, they have cameras everywhere. Studies have shown that crime has decreased, and arrests, which went up initially, have gone down as people become aware of being watched. And on top of that, the fact is that international terrorism is advancing at a frightening rate as more and more weapons technology is developed. Whether it is suitcase nukes or the black plague, whether it is the IRA, Al'Qaida or the FLQ, it's dangerous and the larger world population gets (as well as the more the western governments benefit while third world countries struggle), the more likely terrorism is.
I used to have a whole bunch of titles, I think. That probably makes me better than you. Maybe.