Thursday, October 7, 2010

Smile ... You're on Candid Camera

J.D. Mullane, a news writer and columnist for the Bucks County Courier Times, has written two columns in the last week about hidden surveillance cameras that are being installed in Bristol, Pennsylvania. (http://www.phillyburbs.com/opinions/columnists/news_columnists/jd_mullane.html) He is concerned that more cameras mean fewer cops. He worries about terrorists using them to plot attacks, as one did recently in New York. He is concerned about ominous Orwellian consequences. Most of all, he is concerned that this is another insidious tentacle of Big Government. I’m not about to belittle anyone who is fixated on the size of government rather than its effectiveness, who is trying to hide from or fight government rather than taking control and ownership over it, at least not much … right now. Right now, I kinda almost agree with the unreasoned reactionary. I am troubled by hidden surveillance cameras in parks, on busy street corners, and in dark alleys. I’m not worried that the Mayor of Bristol is trying to micromanage my life or that a godless and un-American Muslim is going to blow up something on Radcliffe Street. I’m a Liberal, so my concern is more emotional and romanticized. A camera in a public place means that I can’t step out of character anonymously. Like most intellectuals, I’m not really worried about losing the right to do something I actually do. I am worried about losing the possibility of doing something I would almost assuredly never do. But, what if I wanted to slip a few dollars to a known fugitive, clandestinely plot to overthrow the Mayor, innocently sneak a swig of some potent and frowned upon beverage or a drag on a cigarette, wear a Metallica shirt, or have a dangerous liaison of some sort? What if I just wanted to go to a public place and be a little less me, and have no one know about it? I think, whether we take advantage of it or not, we all need the possibility of retreating to the margins of our lives and acting out of character. Maybe if we had more of those places, we’d have fewer J. D. Mullane’s bringing their faulty, fallacy laden, and unsupported arguments to the masses.

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