The class I taught is Information Technology and Society.  During this class we explored the history of computers from Babbage's Difference Engine to the iPad.  We spent time looking at the challenges we deal with living with ubiquitous technology.  Things like SPAM, online fraud, identity theft were included to name just a few.  We also looked at the components of a successful team and the issues that come along with leading a team of knowledge workers, whether they are programmers or other professionals.  This time we ended the class with George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-four.  I was quite surprised by the number of students who had never read it before.  Orwell's depressing future was not only a warning against the totalitarian regimes of Stalin or Mao but also provides a warning to us.

 

No, I don't believe the government is creating camps to herd people who disagree into for re-education.  No, I don't believe that we are in imminent danger of falling under the control of a totalitarian regime.  However, if you consider a few things, you may agree that attempted control of our minds by our language is happening today.  The technology that makes our life so easy also makes it easy for our government to watch us, listen to us, and monitor us.  If we don't recognize these threats to our liberty then there is no way to stop them.  The government, by gradually reducing our liberty, increases the control it holds over our lives.

 

I pointed out to the students some of the ways our liberties have been reduced.  Ways that they had not considered before including phasing out incandescent lightbulbs, requiring low flush toilets and setting minim energy efficiency for automobiles.  All three of these reduce our choices and therefore reduce our liberty.  Chip, chip, chip away at the foundations of freedom with the end result being slavery to the state.  I don't know about you but I would rather be free to make my own choices.

 

We also discussed the TSA and the nightmare of flying.  One of the students pointed out that he was okay with a little inconvenience if it meant staying alive.  The problem is that the measure taken by government to "protect" us, don't really protect us at all.  We give up our rights to be able to move around our country and in return we aren't really any safer. 

 

If Americans don't demand that their government stop trampling on their rights, the government will only tramp harder.  Far too many Americans are clueless and complacent, eating Doritos on the couch while watching American Idol...  It is time to start waking up.