George Orwell, you were right!

[DwWin]

I don't know if anyone else read the article in one of the newspapers over the weekend where it was proposed that CCTV be put into the homes of drug addicts to help protect the children? I am all for anything that will help to protect the weak and the innocent but what comes next? CCTV in the homes of known alcoholics? CCTV in the homes of known criminals? Oh the hell just put it in every home "for the protection of the people from the people".

We spend enough time on CCTV everyday just walking down the high streets of Britain and I for one do not want to appear on "Big Brother".

[Mark H]

I can see it now, drug crazed lunatic picks up his machete and thinks, no, better not, I’m on CCTV.

Of course they could use those new cameras with the built in speakers so the highly trained (but minimum wage) negotiators in the control centre can speak to said nutter.

“You!, Yes you, the nutter with machete. Put it down and lay on the floor. The police should be with you in a couple of hours.”

Citabria
Libertarian

[Symphony]

Yep! We live in a society of paranoids already what with parents and teachers not allowed to control their children, kids not allowed to play conkers and forbidden other normal behaviour. What more can we expect? No wonder there are so many loonies around.

I can just hear Big Brother now ...

Our Father,
Who art watching me on CCTV ...

Can you imagine? Elevator music in MacDonalds will be replaced by lists of ingredients and calories in every bite ...

Elrons taking over the world ...

[Gyppo]

Oh yes...  Join with me in the fondly remembered and often parodied TV jingle (which is about to receive another kicking)...

"A million dumb Chavs every day,
pick up a tin of beans and say...
'Ere, Gar!  What the F*** am I supposed to do with this?"

And the automated tele-visual display unit on the microwave picks up on the anguished cry and runs a little loop of idiot-proof instructions, a sort of 'opening by mumbers' with Ant & Bloody-Dec alternating every word - even breaking long words in two if they find them too difficult to complete individually - as they explain the complicated process of 'beating the ring pull opener without snapping it off'.

Then a third voice chips in and says...

"Alternatively, you could put it in a sock to create a makeshift weapon and mug some rich git for the price of a MacDonalds."

Then Ant & Dec can come back and explain what a sock is.

You could even have a digital re-make of some Blue Peter classics, with Valerie Singleton and John Noakes  demonstrating the 'can in a sock' cosh.  "...so here's one we made earlier..."

The only problem with Utopias is we all want a different version.

As Shakespeare said, "Ah, but there's the rub..."

And as Tom Lehrer said...  "When the bomb falls you will all proceed directly to your respective Valhallas.  Do not pass 'Go!'  Do not collect 200 dollars!"

Gyppo

[Symphony]

[Mark H]

Gyppo,

The only problem with Utopias is we all want a different version.

You think that NOW but wait till the geneticists have done with you. You’ll be rushing down to the barber for a proper non-hippy haircut so fast, your loafers won’t touch the (extremely clean) pavement.

Enjoy it while you can dude.

Sinf,

Your head appears to have fallen off!

M

[McWawa]

Isn't this a Google.Yourhouse    thing.
Where everyone's supposedly  so proud to be seem on screen. Look what we're doing, or not !  Granny can google in at any time and watch from the old folks home too.How exciting.
Remember , if you're not doing anything wrong then you aint got nothing to hide ! and if you want to hide then you must doing something wrong.
How many people ( the service will be privatised i'm sure) does it take to monitor 20 million homes or more? ? Or would the very notion that anyone , official or member of the public, could tune into our homes at any time ensure that we would all behave..... just in case we might have online visitors.
 edit: of course we know it's a recipe for anarchy; look what the kids are already video-ing themselves doing and putting up on the net and sms texting around.Well i haven't looked, but have read about.It just encourages them when they got an audience !
I'm off to the hills.


bryan

[Gyppo]

Gyppo,

You think that NOW but wait till the geneticists have done with you. You’ll be rushing down to the barber for a proper non-hippy haircut so fast, your loafers won’t touch the (extremely clean) pavement.

Enjoy it while you can dude.

This assumes that cropped-heads will be the design standard.  It ain't necessarily so ;-)  And even if it is they'll need to keep a few old hairies around to frighten the kids, to remind them what can happen if they don't toe the party line.

And if I don't achieve 'treasured old weirdo' status I'll head for the hills.  I haven't spent the last 56 years learning all kinds of useful skills in order to just throw them away and bloody conform.  There will always be people who slip through the net in any system, and I've trained to be one of them.  At the end of the day - if all else fails - I'd rather take the final opt-out than swallow the 'pseudo-happy pills'.  No 'behaviour modified' half-life for me.

Gyppo   

[DwWin]

Gypo,

I like the way you think, which set of hills would you head for?

[Mark H]

Gyppo

Don’t tell him/her. Remember; trust no one!

Mark

[Gyppo]

Sorry DWin, even immediate family aren't au fait with my 'running plans'.  They'll find out on a 'need to know' basis.  It won't be The Brecons though, because they'll be crawling with ex-SAS runaways, digging up the private stuff they've previously hidden during 'exercises'.  On the other hand the previous sentence could be a double or even triple bluff...

Gyppo

[DC]

Don't forget, you also have to watch all those who drink... what is it?... more than five 'units' of alcohol in one session? (One 'unit' being half a pint.)

Oh dear, on my average two-monthly visits to the pub, I usually sink four or five pints of Guinness. Looks like I'm a 'binge drinker'!  I guess that taking an hour to wobble home what should be a twenty minute walk along a country road is the height of anti-social behaviour. Hope there's room left in tham thar hills...

Dave.

[McWawa]

With such names as The Pugin Room bar,Members' Smoking Room , Strangers' Bar, Terrace Bar, Annie's Bar and the Press Bar, I'm inclined to think that the expression "binge" drinking has it's origins at the Houses of Parliament. When after a long day of doing nothing but talking and debating all retired to the bars  where the cry was "Business Is Now - Generating Exuberance", and they all proceed to get sh*tfaced before heading off to the Wets End.....ooops sorry, driver, West End....where they continue more of the generating  exuberance.

bryan

[matsamu]

Geez...you know where this would be good? The conspiracy topic...i don't know where the link is, and i'm late for Marching Band practice...so...i don't think i'm gonna look for it, but hey...it'd be fun to get taht up and running again.

I did just see 1984 lying on the table the other day, and it got me thinking about the book again. I have to say that i'm not in favor of the CCTV or the Anti-sex league...for the same reasons...ahem.

~matsamu

[thatollie]

I'd rather take the final opt-out than swallow the 'pseudo-happy pills'.  No 'behaviour modified' half-life for me.

My main character [created before I joined this site] thinks the same way.