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| Joe Bakewell. |
It seems that
I got off on the wrong foot when I finished the following essay. A corrected
version follows:
THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT.
The one-party
system in China seems to run counter to human nature, substituting surveillance
and control for popular support. Increasingly, technology is developed and
deployed to detect anti-party activity and attitudes. The goal is 100%
compliance. On the surface, this will be achieved.
As the cycle
continues, will the surveillance people become the true arbiters of power? A
force for corruption? Who’s going to mind the watchers?
And what
about the cost; not just for the surveillance but the collateral suppression of
healthy activity?
I see a
situation in which the Surveillance bureaucracy becomes a special interest
group constantly warning of the growing danger of dissent while taking credit
for outing and punishing the dissenters--a vicious circle resulting in a police
state.
History
provides a number of examples of how earlier police states have ended. Both
Russia and Germany have gone through several rounds, and China still hasn’t
recovered from Chairman Mao.
I don’t
suggest that we sit back and watch but rather that we look within our own
country for bureaucracies gone rogue and our ever-growing special-interest
corruption. With either one, or both of these in place, we mere citizens have
nothing to say. Our votes do more harm than good. Our intentions count for
nothing except our own self-delusion.
Joe Bakewell
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