Surveillance and Controlled Society in Modern Life – What is Happy Life?- Introduction

This is my first long English research paper.
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Surveillance and Controlled Society in Modern Life – What is Happy Life?-
Introduction
“BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU” (George 5) is described in the novel which was published in 1949. “Big brother” is the existence which is always watching you with surveillance cameras around; it forces you not to have any privacy in your own home (George Orwell, Big Brother). In the same novel, “WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, and IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” is said, too (George 7). Have you ever thought or felt that someone is always watching? An English author George Orwell wrote Nineteen eighty-four and made out the world where anything of our life is monitored under the system of socialist one-party state. The world in the novel shows the surveillance is easily understandable. In the real world, the system of monitoring for us is working. For example, the use of spy satellite which checks any way of electronic communications such as personal communication in phone including mobile phone, email, fax, and net browsing have been used since the twentieth century(Q&A). But in the twenty-first century, we are under the surveillance in the way hard to make out because spy satellites are come to public attention and become this system can be easy to find now and the other system may observe our life without even noticing. And collected our personal data collected is used to make us act what surveyor want us to do, then our society not only surveillance society but also controlled society. One simple example of controlled society is direct mails. Direct mails which are based on personal data always reach your house. These mails try to make you buy the product which is introduced in mail. This structure is shaped by the system of surveillance which garners the information. Therefore, this society can be called surveillance and controlled society. If you want to avoid the domination the surveillance and controlled society, you need a lot of energy. Now, we have alternatives of whether thinking a lot to avoid the domination or stop thinking and living in the dark. In fact, we are under the surveillance and controlled society. And we have a right to decide the way of living in whether we should think or stop thinking. To decide the way of living, we need to know the system of the surveillance and controlled society. After that we have to decide the way. In order to analyze the surveillance and controlled society, this paper examines the rather old way of surveillance and control at first and then shows the advantages and disadvantages of both thinking hard and stop thinking.
Surveillance society
One way of surveillance is the using spy satellites. Spy satellites have long history. In the confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union, spy activity was working to check the opponent. In this process, Echelon came up. In 1947, one of inter-governmental agreement in which nation agreed to share and swap intelligence data was formed and Echelon was given rise. After that, the first Echelon network was built in 1971 by the United States Security Agency (NSA) and this network has been updated (Q&A). The existence of Echelon has been known for sometime. This system is used to catch Soviet spy at first. But now, NSA have used the Echelon to check behaviors of Americans from when George Bush authorized the agency to do so in 2002 secretly (Jason). The Echelon is checking millions of phone calls, faxes and emails (Asser). The some keyword which is the NSA flags are: terrorism, plutonium, bomb, militia, gun, explosives, Iran, and Iraq (Jason). In this process, our entire communication tools which use electricity are always checked by Echelon and the Japanese is within the net of surveillance of the Echelon because the NSA have listening post located in: Menwith Hill, Britain; Morwenstow, Britain; Bad Aibling, Germany; Geraldton Station, Australia; Shoal Bay, Australia; Waihopai, New Zealand; Leitrim, Canada; Misawa, Japan; Yakima Firing Center, Seattle; Sugar Grove, and Virginia in 2000 (Jason). Therefore, Japan is included the range of the Echelon spy network.
In this case, some people think that the surveillance of the Echelon is used only to observe the nation security crisis such as terrorism but this acknowledgment is not true. The activity of the Echelon monitors economically sensitive information such as, future commodity price, determining other nation’s positions in trade negotiations, data of international trade of arms, and information of sensitive technology (Lyon 96). While some companies do not have a right to gain information, other American companies get the benefit from this information. Boeing and McDonnell-Douglas use information collected by Echelon to beat Airbus Industries and gets the benefit from the Saudi airline business. That example shows that some American companies get a benefit from information collected by the Echelon and are in an advantageous position compare to foreign companies (Lyon 96). Seeing these points, the spy satellite, Echelon, is used not only for political usage but also for economic. “Everyday communications may also be intercepted, which again shows how the largest scale of global economic and international operations is articulated with mundane minutiae of local life through the medium of surveillance” (Lyon 97). To avoid the surveillance of the Echelon, we should not use the electronic system to communicate with the other people. It is difficult to do. But even if some people can do this way, you are in the surveillance by another way.
Another way is using the surveillance camera. In early 1965, police used the surveillance cameras in public places in the United States (Roberts). And now, in Japan, “The police currently have 363 security cameras in operation at busy shopping and entertainment urban districts across the country” (Kyodo). And in the United States, Video surveillance systems are more disparate and at various levels of handleability in the United States (Biale). In the world, especially in developed countries, there are a lot of cameras to check the situation of town. In addition, the performance of surveillance camera is developing. We can see the quality of surveillance camera sometime on TV. Years ago the surveillance camera took a picture in frame-by-frame advance and it is difficult to make sure the people taken. But now, the quality of taken picture is very clear. As a result, we can recognize human face in a frame clearly. Therefore, in urban area, we are under surveillance. If we want to keep away from this surveillance, we have to go to the countryside. Some peoples may think that we are not under surveillance because we do not do which make us under the surveillance. But it can not be true. All peoples is thought as would-be criminals and under surveillance. The criteria which decides a monitored person is established behind closed doors and person who is considered as a danger by people who has a power to do surveillance is under surveillance. Therefore, we can be under surveillance without consent. In these points, our society is the surveillance society.
Controlled society
The first example of controlled society is the marketing using computer. In the world, 1,018,057,389 people are using the internet (The world). Therefore, internet can be called a miniaturized version of our society. If our behavior in internet is controlled, our society can be a controlled society. In the internet, database marketing is going on. In database marketing, consumers are graded and guided using personal data taken both from public resources and from direct recording of costumer behavior (Lyon 101). this marketing system is closely linked to surveillance system. Our data which show the behavior in internet is obtained by companies. For example, I/Pro, a company in the United States which contributes the data (L. Penenberg) who and how people use each internet site to the company contract such as Yahoo, CompuServe and Netscape (Lyon p102). And companies are using data to make people be under the control of company. In another example of the marketing using computer is the use of a mobile telephone. The number of people using cell-phone is increasing and there are 4,017,294,000 portable telephones in the world (The world). As a result, not only we seek information using mobile phone but also we are given the information automatically from a mobile telephone. The information which we can get from mobile phone is already made a choice and the choosing tend to be generally manipulated by the large capital. So our consumption behavior can be controlled without even noticing by using electronic tool such as internet and mobile telephone.
The second example is the media control in Iraq war. The Washington post declared the transit of approval rate of the former President Bush. The popularity rating in the immediate aftermath of 9.11 terrorist attacks was 92% and in March 20, 2003 when the Iraq war started, the rate was 70%. But In Jan. 17, 2009, the rate is 33%. These numbers meaned that almost all American citizens had agreed with the Iraq war when the Iraq war had started and a lot of people changed the opinion in a moment of cool-headed. Therefore, when a lot of American citizens agreed with the Iraq war, it can be thought that they lose rational thinking about the war. In this process, American citizens lose their cool and kinds of brainwashing were conducted by the former President Bush and the government of the United States of America. The way of the brainwashing is the inciting fears of terror. In the beginning of 2002, President Bush delivered his State of the Union address. One of the content of this speech was about axis of evil as below. “States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred. They could attack our allies or attempt to blackmail the United States. (States)” This is the compartment of whole speech text and one of the state which was called as an axis of evil is Iraq (States). President Bush excited a feeling of dread as this speech and made people agree with the attack of army of United States to Iraq. This process can not control all citizens but some peoples who believe words of the Bush. According to these two examples, our society can be called as a controlled society which we are under a control as a mover wants them to do, if we do not care about around information.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we are living in the surveillance and controlled society and our act can be under the surveillance and we can be controlled as above. But if we do not know and do not care about these facts, we can live without knowing and caring. In fact, to enjoy a normal lifestyle, these facts are not necessary for me. And large amounts of labor are needed to care about these facts so we may live and enjoy my life without concern for information around us. But not knowing is a stop thinking. Some people think that we can enjoy life in stop thinking. However, if we do not care about the situation that we are in now, there is a possibility that we suffer an unreasonable loss. If we avoid an unreasonable loss by all means, we must know about the situation around us including the surveillance system and information. After that, we have to have a think a coping strategy around us. Therefore, the knowing the surveillance system and considering information around us are a matter of the highest importance for our fulfilling and happy life. (1939 words)
Works Cited
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Biale, Noam. “What Criminologists and Others Studying Cameras Have Found”. You are being watched. 18 Oct. 2009 .
George, Orwell. Nineteen eighty-four. London: Secker & Warburg, 1949.
“George Orwell, Big Brother is watching your house “. London Evening Standard. 1 Oct. 2009 .
Jason, Leopold. “The NSA Spy Engine – Echelon”. Intelligence Search. 29 Sep. 2009 .
Kyodo News, “Residential streets to get cop cameras”. The Japan Times. 18 Oct. 2009 .
Lyon, David. Surveillance society: monitoring everyday life. Buckingham: Open University Press, 2001.
L. Penenberg , Adam. “These Traffic Numbers Are Real”. Wired.com. 26 Oct. 2009 .
“President Bush’s Approval Ratings”. The Washington post. 26 Oct. 2009 .
“Q&A: What you need to know about Echelon”. The British Broadcasting Corporation. 29 Sep. 2009 .
Roberts, Lucy P. . “The history of video surveillance — from VCR’s to eyes in the sky”. Video-Surveillance-Guide.com.. 18 Oct. 2009 .
“States of the union address of the oresident to the joint session of congress”. National Cable Satellite Corporation. 27 Oct. 2009 .
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