Life under surveillance

Manuel Stahl
Jul 10, 2017 · 4 min read

We can stop kidding ourselves. Of course there will not be a big news headline “You are now living under 24/7 surveillance”. Why would anybody want to announce something like that? It is simply being done without any democratic legitimation, because the people doing it are either handed illegal privileges by the state, or they are simply doing it by themselves, having developed the necessary technology on their own, and we know enough to know that it’s more than one entity doing the supervising, they don’t exclude each other, the only entity that is excluded is public knowledge, in order to not endanger the subversion of democracy that is intended in one or several shapes during that process.

That’s why I’m publishing this now, I’ve crossed a threshold where resorting to any official institution I can not expect that to increase my safety, because I must assume they’ll use the time to tie a knot around my neck. So I understood I’ll probably not be able to save myself, but maybe I can save others with this.

I’ve said before that an increasingly tight net of surveillance can, for all practical purposes, be considered like an artificially implemented religion with a god that you don’t need to believe in for it work effectively. Now, I’m no Snowden, I don’t have any exclusive insider knowledge that I can go public with, I’ve just been watching from the fringes, and I refuse to let myself get intimidated, at least as long as I can help it. I’ve not been trained to withstand torture or any of that shit. I know that, but I’ve learned to care enough for other people to make me take that chance.

So, what do I have to say about life under surveillance? We already live in a world where people try to not show certain behaviors that carry negative associations with them. In essence, the public image people project of themselves tends to that of an angel, but of course we know it’s against human nature. Feelings follow a path of homeostasis, in order to feel something positive you need to have felt something negative before and vice versa. So what people do in order to be able to contain themselves in some sort of balance is they start to hide the types of behavior that would make themselves appear bad in public perception. You can do that alone, as a couple or as a family, every path has its drawbacks, but what they have in common is that privacy is the one key ingredient to be able to keep up appearances. Another thing it does to everybody is creating fear, and of course that’s not by chance but in order to keep people easy to manipulate.

The clear consequence of this situation is: if we want to break out of the mechanisms of manipulation we have to overcome our fear. And we are well advised to do so quickly, because if we wait too long, there’ll be a Terminator kind of scenario waiting for us. Our only remaining chance is using the fact that we mean something (and sometimes, a lot) to each other as a means to free each other.

How can we free each other, you ask? Start acting against expectations, risk something. Depending on the amount of surveillance that is being used against you, acting along with artificial intelligence can predict your behavior a lot better than most people would think. The tools how this works are out there, but that’s not the highest priority, because their precision depends on people’s predictability, if everybody starts behaving a little less predictable, that’s a way we can gain some time with.

Now, of course I don’t suggest any behavior that hurts other people (or even animals, if possible), there’s a myriad of ways to behave unpredictably without harming anyone, and it’s a key to keeping our freedom.

But we shouldn’t trick us into thinking that this alone will be enough to ensure a peaceful outcome for everybody. It’s a step in that direction, but as everybody can make up their own mind, some people will come to the conclusion that violence is their best option. So it’s a good idea to invest in an international balance of power and resources. Not for peer pressure, but for a longterm perspective for all of us.

Next point: many people just don’t have a longterm perspective anymore anyway, so they might not be interested in changing their behavior. Trying to change them is essentially a waste of time, because they’ll die out anyway, while trying to change their behavior takes time you could invest in more effective activities. But that’s a decision everybody needs to make for themselves. For now I’ll leave you with a short signal:

Keep the hope up. We won’t get a second planet to toy with.

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