I wonder if surveillance controversies are experienced differently by Christians. I have always walked around knowing that someone is watching and listening to everything I do. Christians of traditional belief have also always expected that some unfriendly and even dangerous forces are always listening in.
That doesn't come anywhere near the logical questions of what governments, advertisers, and mechanical devices should be allowed to observe, store, and share. But it might affect the issue emotionally, in terms of feeling violated and intruded upon.
If Lewis is right the devil wants to fuzz our minds, so recalling that he's watching is hard to keep up. And we oscillate between trying not to remember that God is seeing, and trying to persuade ourselves that He's a nice guy and won't mind. So the multitude of witnesses is easily put out of mind. (IIRC people tended to forget cameras on some of those "Big Brother" style TV shows.)
ReplyDeleteIn any event, both are known quantities (so to speak). We know, in the abstract, what they intend. The faceless people monitoring the telescreens and the bureaucrats picking who to find dirt on this week are relatively random--variable interval punishment?
And there's a strong reaction of "Who died and made you God?" when some mere humans presume to supervise your life.