On 21 October 1949 Huxley wrote to George Orwell, author of Nineteen Eighty-Four, congratulating Orwell on “how fine and how profoundly important the book is”. His letter to Orwell contained the prediction that: “Within the next generation I believe that the world’s leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience”.
- Wikipedia
O’Brien: What are your feelings towards Big Brother?
Winston Smith: I hate him.
O’Brien: You must love him. It is not enough to obey him. You must love him.
- 1984, George Orwell
Cox News Service | Jun 24, 2007
by DON MELVIN
MIDDLESBROUGH, England – Hey! Big Brother is talking to YOU! And you’d better stop what you’re doing, or else.
This small city in northern England has come up with a novel idea for convincing petty violators – litterers, public beer-drinkers, brawlers or students stealing street signs – to abort their offense.
Closed-circuit television cameras in the city center not only monitor and record their actions, they also, by means of loud-speakers, suggest that the lawbreakers desist.
City officials say the effect of a loud disembodied voice telling litterers to pick up their trash generally startles the bejesus out of them and prompts quick compliance.
“The idea is so simple but so effective,” said Jack Bonnar, Middlesbrough’s security and surveillance manager.
British Home Secretary John Reid, the cabinet officer responsible for policing, agreed. He visited Middlesbrough in April and was impressed enough that he announced the government would spend about $1 million to introduce the system to 20 other cities.
“This is a hugely popular scheme in Middlesbrough, and the vast majority of the people here are right behind it,” Reid said. “It helps counter things like litter, drunk or disorderly behavior, gangs congregating. They are the sorts of things that make people’s lives a misery.”
Middlesbrough has 21 of the talking cameras, which really are just CCTV cameras and a pair of speakers mounted on the same pole. They, along with 116 non-talking cameras, are monitored by two or three people in a control room.
The operators can pull up one of the images on a screen in front of them and manipulate the camera with a joystick, swivelling it left and right and zooming in and out.
When a miscreant is spotted, the operators work from a script, taking care to identify the person so there’s no mistaking to whom the disembodied voice is speaking.
Example: “Lady/Male in (whatever clothes), you have been seen to drop litter. Kindly pick it up and put it in the bin provided.”
If the person complies, the operator thanks him or her. Otherwise, the warnings escalate. Ultimately, the tape can be turned over to police and a fine imposed.
Bonnar has compiled a greatest hits video to demonstrate the program’s efficacy.
It shows people stopping, stunned – one man points to his chest in a gesture that asks “Me?” – and meekly dismounting bikes, throwing away alcohol, or picking up food wrappers.
As more people have become aware that they’re likely to be embarrassed by an amplified voice, the number of petty offenses has diminished, Bonnar said.
When the program started last year, the talking cameras were used about 20 times a day. “Now it comes down to 20 times a month,” he said. “The town center is now a heck of a lot cleaner.”
Still, the system does not always work as intended. Officials apologized after they barked over the loudspeaker at a young woman suspected of littering, then showed her image on TV.
In fact, she had put the trash in her baby carriage.
And recently, a reporter trying to hear the system in action discarded a newspaper (later picked up) onto the street three times, in view of three different talking cameras, without receiving a reprimand.
1 response so far ↓
The Literary Critic // May 15, 2008 at 7:34 am
What’s most chilling about 1984 is the realization that it’s not quite as fictional as it seems.