We are living, not merely in the age of rapid development in total surveillance technology, but also of monolithic, sanctimonious, corporate condescension from the creators of that technology, and nothing augurs its arrival more than Google’s adoption of the nebulous motto, “Don’t be evil”. A deceptively simple formula that might ease the conscience of the oompa loompas of total surveillance, but it’s nothing new, as it has similarly eased the consciences of butchers and jailers since dawn of time.
Evil, as beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. China’s government probably views “evil” in a much different light than, say, Albert Jay Nock, Friedrich Hayek, or the inhabitants of Tibet. Hitler opposed what he saw as evil, so did Stalin. And so did Mao. Our government has done the same, to the Plains Indians, the Vietnamese, and the citizens of the Middle East.
Really, history is nothing more than a record of evil acts committed in the name of defeating some imagined evil.
It should be alarming to us that the architects of the Surveillance State have anchored their moral compass to such a dangerously ambiguous creed.
