Originally Posted by fatbrit

Not!

Originally Posted by anotherlimey

Which makes them believe the people in power know what they are doing, which gets them re-elected.

If September 11th 2001 didn't wake anyone up nothing will.

Originally Posted by anotherlimey

But there are so many more things to consider than just putting a criminal behind bars.

Originally Posted by Angry White Pyjamas

Its all sleight of hand and smoke and mirrors.

Originally Posted by rincewind

Too true.

For me, the whole "Big Brother" paranoia is a waste of time. For most people, it's a term they've heard in pop-culture and have never even read Orwell's "1984." It's thrown around like sprinkles on a snow cone along with "very Orwellian."

"Big Brother" (to use the over-used phrase) will always be watching. Regardless. Social Security numbers, census lists, voting lists, bank details, credit cards, car tags, etc. If you don't like being apart of society, you have the "freedom" to seek refuge in the mountains. But I don't fancy your chances there. Just ask Ned Beatty.

When you live in an organised society, this is what you expect. I for one see it as a security blanket. It's nice to know that there are cameras out there looking out for me. Granted, they won't stop all crime. But if it makes one criminal think twice before committing an act, how can they be a bad thing?

And people please, do you really think the government is going to be interested in you picking your nose and flicking it when you're out on the streets at night? There is no man power large enough to investigate every muppet that parades past a CCTV camera. They are there as a crime reducer and I for one applaud them. As long as they capture my best side, I don't give a flying Orwell.

Originally Posted by rincewind

And people please, do you really think the government is going to be interested in you picking your nose and flicking it when you're out on the streets at night? There is no man power large enough to investigate every muppet that parades past a CCTV camera. They are there as a crime reducer and I for one applaud them. As long as they capture my best side, I don't give a flying Orwell.

Originally Posted by britontour

They should be looking at the poverty in society that makes these people desperate enough to commit crimes. I think a majority of people would turn to crime if they where brought up in a rough neighborhood with no money, no job or worth where its survival.

Originally Posted by Partystar

In your opinion. Everyone's entitled to their own.

Originally Posted by fatbrit

Yes -- governments have and governments will. Here's an example from your lifetime:

"The Stasi was much, much worse than the Gestapo, if you consider only the oppression of its own people," according to Simon Wiesenthal of Vienna, Austria, who has been hunting Nazi criminals for half a century. "The Gestapo had 40,000 officials watching a country of 80 million, while the Stasi employed 102,000 to control only 17 million." One might add that the Nazi terror lasted only twelve years, whereas the Stasi had four decades in which to perfect its machinery of oppression, espionage, and international terrorism and subversion.
[http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/k...er-stasi.html]

Originally Posted by rincewind

Too true.

For me, the whole "Big Brother" paranoia is a waste of time. For most people, it's a term they've heard in pop-culture and have never even read Orwell's "1984." It's thrown around like sprinkles on a snow cone along with "very Orwellian."

"Big Brother" (to use the over-used phrase) will always be watching. Regardless. Social Security numbers, census lists, voting lists, bank details, credit cards, car tags, etc. If you don't like being apart of society, you have the "freedom" to seek refuge in the mountains. But I don't fancy your chances there. Just ask Ned Beatty.

When you live in an organised society, this is what you expect. I for one see it as a security blanket. It's nice to know that there are cameras out there looking out for me. Granted, they won't stop all crime. But if it makes one criminal think twice before committing an act, how can they be a bad thing?

And people please, do you really think the government is going to be interested in you picking your nose and flicking it when you're out on the streets at night? There is no man power large enough to investigate every muppet that parades past a CCTV camera. They are there as a crime reducer and I for one applaud them. As long as they capture my best side, I don't give a flying Orwell.

Originally Posted by Angry White Pyjamas

Explain why so many brought up in those very circumstances dont turn to crime. Or are you suggesting that everyone below or on the poverty line is a criminal?

Originally Posted by fatbrit

Depends whether you live in a free society or a totalitarian one, really. You are arguing that you can have your own opinion on one hand, then supporting a totalitarian one on the other. Cake and eat it may not be possible.

Originally Posted by Partystar

That's not quite true, just because a person lives in a place where they might now be allowed to express their opinion without dire consequences doesn't mean they don't think an opinion other than the 'allowed' one, they just keep it to themselves.

Originally Posted by Partystar

That's not quite true, just because a person lives in a place where they might now be allowed to express their opinion without dire consequences doesn't mean they don't think an opinion other than the 'allowed' one, they just keep it to themselves.