21st February 1998
Ever get the feeling you are being watched?
Smile people, and be a little paranoid. Wherever you go, whatever you do - the chances are somebody is watching.
You have all seen the surveillance cameras in town centres, ferry terminals, lock-ups, car parks, motorways... You've all seen the footage taken from them in programmes like "Police, stop!" and "Real TV".
There are many more cameras. In telephone boxes. In servicetills. Look in the electronics magazines and you will discover cameras small enough to hide it, and a nine volt battery, in a cigarette pack - all for under £100!
This is the age of video vigilantes, where neighbours record each others bad behaviour as evidence against them.
Now, this isn't too bad a thing. What with everybody watching out for you, this should be a safer place to live in.
But one problem springs to mind. All these cheap & easy television programmes that call themselves "Fly on the wall" (I personally hate that phrase). One should wonder if everybody is asked whether or not they wish to be shown on television - and what if the person says no?
Because, you see, once it starts it continues. Human nature being what it is,
there will always go somebody willing to go one level lower. What justifies
this video recording? The wellbeing of yourself? Your property? Somebody else?
For example: Person A sets up a camera on a broom handle and records person B
having it off with his secretary. This recording and what it signifies is
clearly against the wellbeing of person B's wife.
But is it any of person A's business?
Of course, maybe that is a little far fetched. Okay - water it down a little
and throw in a cast of thousands. Now we have global media and Bill Clinton
(the US president - in case you didn't know!).
It isn't a particularly good role model, whether he did it or not - the
allegations are still there and still understandable to everybody. But think
about it. However good the president is in bed... does that really
affect the way he will run the country?
It isn't as if the world powers vote by who has the biggest penis, the
greatest number of friction burns and the most used condoms...
Because if you think about it, this really isn't sending a good message out to the populace. It is saying that it is okay to lie, to cheat and to tell all that you know to a guy with a camera offering you money...
...when some things are better sorted out in private, with nobody watching and
no clueless gits passing judgement on the half facts they think they know.