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Article: Smile, you're on the telescreen: universal surveillance meets universal exhibitionism.(Rant)
- Article from:
- Reason
- Article date:
- February 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Reason Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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REALITY TV HAS many lessons to teach us, but there is one it reiterates with a frequency even parrots can't match: If you want people to behave badly, stick a camera in their faces. It doesn't matter if they're stranded on a South Pacific island or huddled in the back of a police car; there's something about the intrusive, unblinking gaze of a Sony Betacam that makes people feel invisible, beyond censure.
Apparently our legislators and law enforcement officials have little time to watch Survivor or Cops. They still operate under the notion that surveillance acts as a deterrent. In that enclave of unchecked liberal permissiveness known to the world as San ...