Texas Governor Rick Perry wants to install night-vision camaras on the Mexico border, then have citizens be able to call a toll-free number to report illegal immigrants crossing the border.
There is a point to be made here about how the people can be recruited to create their own security state, but I'm too depressed to make it. Who needs Big Brother when we each can act as each other's spymaster?
This is like the evil twin of the wisdom of crowds. We're participating in our own Panoptican.
Via Jason Mazzone
The creepy thing about the panopticon was that it was internal to the body politic; the border-cam would police the body's membrane. The former polices social norms, the latter geographic space.
ReplyDeletePlus, I think the border cam would just be funny to watch.