Francisco Metapolis
Sep 7, 2018 · 1 min read

The problem posed by the telescreen as Orwell called it is not the intrusive technology: I have no problem with being watched by a Big Brother such as Trump as long as I am granted the privilege to watch him in return. The problem it it’s being at the hands of an oligarchy and all communication technologies at the hand of an oligarchy, even mere books and I would even say especially mere books when they get the status of sacred scriptures of some sort, are equally perverse. Even at the age of telescreens, Qurans, Torahs, Mein Kampfs, little Red Books, remain at the front of most of the killings of opponents and dissidents, and their ravages are even bloodier where people are too poor to get a computer. On the other hand whenever the telescreen technology as you call it is really two-way, whenever one can talk back to the talking head, whenever it is at the service of some sort of democracy rather than oligarchy, they have a preventive effect against fascism as at last ordinary people can talk to other ordinary people without resorting to communication professionals.