That Doesn’t Sound Like A Free Society To Me

A database of “every phone call, email and time spent on the internet by the public” sounds like something that Stalin, Mao, or Hitler, would have loved to have, and that Jong Il, or George Bush would give just about anything for — but it looks like it will happen in Britain first.

Gordon Brown signalled plans to bring in the database holding details of every phone call, email and time spent on the internet by the public in last month’s draft Queen’s Speech.

At times like this one finds it hard not to think about Bentham’s panopticon isn’t it?

For those unaware (and if you are your education is sadly lacking)

The Panopticon is a type of prison building designed by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham in 1785. The concept of the design is to allow an observer to observe (-opticon) all (pan-) prisoners without the prisoners being able to tell whether they are being watched, thereby conveying what one architect has called the “sentiment of an invisible omniscience.”[1]

Bentham himself described the Panopticon as “a new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example.”[2]

Yeah, yeah, yeah…. I know….. if you’ve nothing to hide you’ve nothing to fear.

Sheeple