Surveillance turns people into actors
Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash
Think of Winston Smith in 1984. Think of yourself if you were being interviewed by a TV crew. Think how you would behave if there was a surveillance camera in bedroom.
As I wrote in Surveillance:
‘Do you act the same if you know you’re being watched, that’s the question I’m asking.’
‘Absolutely not,’ said Grace without hesitation.
‘What about if it’s a camera, but you don’t know if it’s on?’
Grace remembered when the SIS had made her wait for hours in an interview room the size of a broom cupboard. There was a camera on the wall that stared unblinkingly. ‘No, you have to assume they’re watching, or it’s being recorded. It’s Bentham’s panopticon logic.’
Her companion beamed when Grace mentioned the eighteenthcentury philosopher’s name. ‘You do and it is. And if you’re watched constantly . . .’
Grace’s eyes narrowed. ‘You never act normally.’
‘And if you never act normally, you’re not you. So, who are you?’
