Why should we stop worrying and learn to love WK3 assignment - Essay Example

Why We Should Learn to Appreciate Big Brother Columbine and Sandy Hook. Two words that are enough to describe the unfathomable possibilities of horror in the world that we live in. Two tragic, life altering events that has led to cries for greater security for our children. The shooting of peaceful movie goers at the midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises, brings to mind the fact that our security and peace of mind as a people are constantly under threat from people wishing to do us harm for no apparent reason.

Why were these people able to perpetrate such successful crimes in this day and age where everyone is electronically connected via internet? How could our police force be so lax as to not have been able to identify such problem people in the crowd of faces in the mall or in schools? The answer is simple. Nobody was watching. Our perimeters were not secure because constant monitoring and surveillance of people still cannot be accomplished without a court order. Although surveillance cameras are already planted in strategic areas of cities, its scope and use is still limited by law and therefore, hinders its ability to protect the population the way that it potentially could.

Keeping these events of innocent bloodshed in mind, I cannot help but agree with James Stacey Taylor and his explanation of the need to embrace Big Brother in our daily lives as he describes it in his essay “In Praise of Big Brother: Why We Should Learn to Stop Worrying and Love (Some) Government Surveillance”. With the proper safeguards in place, the Orwellian nightmare that most people predict shall not happen because just like everything else pertaining to a persons right to privacy, the government may have access to certain information about you, but they do not have the legal grounds to blackmail or use the information they gathered against a person if it does not relate to a judicial proceeding.

Our Fourth Amendment Rights and Wrongful Seizure Rights as protected by the Supreme Court rulings have made sure of that. As our population continues to become more and more comfortable with the way social media such as Twitter and Facebook has made our every move available to people in a wide-scale basis. I believe that the fear pertaining to the misuse of surveillance information will also fade into the background over time. That is because the events that happen in our daily lives, that show the efficiency and need for the constant surveillance is of the utmost importance in protecting the population will eventually push the people to clamor for more government involvement in security and intrusion into their daily lives in exchange for a sense of security and protection on a 24 hour basis.

Taylors arguments are based upon sound premises. With the use of surveillance information, hostile witnesses will no longer need to be called to court via subpoena. Instead their actions will speak for themselves using properly acquired surveillance information. Police will be able to instantly respond to shooter situations in both schools and public places because the cameras will be trained on these areas and potential points of trouble can easily be pinpointed using facial recognition. Embracing the fact that Big Brother is not the enemy but rather our protector in a world where our sense of safety is fast deteriorating will allow us to feel in control of our lives.

Big Brother will eventually become a normal part of the lives of our future generations but is an idea that our current generation will have to get used to in order to secure everyones safe future. Word Count = 600