This blog is a look at the culture of surveillance and security in contemporary society.
Everyday when we walk through and around Newcastle city centre, or even the University Campus for example, we are being monitored. Our daily lives are surrounded by CCTV systems aimed at the security of commercial premises or even just public streets themselves, to monitor social behaviour. In contemporary society it has become the 'norm'. Before having to look at this subject in some more detail for this module, I can say that forms of surveillance blended into the world around me. I knew they were their, but i just accepted this without much thought. Since taking this module however, I now walk down a street such as Northumberland street in Newcastle and consciously look to see where cameras are etc.
Once you start to think about the idea more, you become more and more aware of the extent to which we are surveilled. CCTV is the most obvious and common form of surveillance, but we are in fact being surveilled when using a cash machine, or paying for things in a shop with a debit card, or when browsing the internet, or sending e-mails. Even our mobile phones are being used as a way of locating and mapping society. Surveillance has become such a subconcious environment within our daily lives that it is rarely questioned or resisted. This has definitely become even more of the case since the events of 9/11 in New York, and 7/7 in London. Security within western societies is at an all time high. This is obviously an automatic consequence and reaction to such attacks, and one which I believe is needed. I dont believe that whether we should have security and surveillance is the question facing us now. I believe that the real question is whether security and surveillance cultures have moved from a state of 'care' toward a state of 'control'. Who ultimately has the power to be the surveiller? The extent to which commercial sectors of our society are involved in surveillance also worries me. I can understand the state having to create a sense of safety and security, even if their methods aren't always necessarily the right ones, but to have businesses that we may never have been in contact with know our credit histories, medical histories, personal details etc.
The digital age has brought with it the problem of digitising information. Unlike having medical records in a doctors surgery filing system, they are now being placed on a nationwide digital datatbase. Immediately the risk of information being accessed by unauthorised personnel etc., is increased. The proposed ID card for the UK will even store all our personal information on a 'smart' chip. However, a report showed how already criminals had the technology to access and download data from the cards, wirelessly, just by standing within a near radius using handheld technology. Technology is a great thing and should keep progressing, but some things are sometimes better left to 'old fashioned' systems, as if there is a technology to allow something to happen - there will always be a way of using technology to counter it.
By automating everything within society,we are moving further into a society like that of Jeremy Bentham’s Penitentiary Panopticon. Bentham envisaged and designed a circular prison intended to be self regulating. The design incorporated a central section, with a tower running from top to bottom and surrounding it, an outer ring of cells which were all in view. This design allows an observer from the tower to observe all the prisoners. Key to this however, was the idea that the observers weren’t visible to the prisoners. This meant that the prisoners, even if not being observed, would believe or worry that they were being observed and as a result police their own behaviour. Jeremy Bentham said himself that it was “a new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind”
If surveillance and security continues on the path that it has over the past few years, I believe we are in danger of creating more problems. Society will become a place where trust no longer exists. It will lead to “cultures of control and of suspicion to be augmented.” We will become suspicious of our neighbors and as a result we will never be free. We will feel separated from one another, and no longer feel as though part of a community.
Xylophone
At first I thought 'here we go, another student fretting cos he might get caught smoking a joint' but then in your last paragraph you raised an interesting point.
Most of us behave reasonably to our fellow humans. But why? One reason is because we are tribal and recognise the advantage of being in a group. Another is religion: most religions tell us that being nice to one another will allow us to avoid death. The most recent (in evolution terms) is the law. We behave reasonably because we don't like the idea of going to prison.
Most of us would agree that whatever the reason, it is a good thing. If more surveilance leads to more good behaviour then I don't think anyone could come up with a good argument against it.