Something that's been on the back burner for some time, regarding the propensity for the younger generation to use the emerging technologies to shop themselves.
I am of a age that can remember our fears in the 70s and 80s that the government was tooling up with its surveillance culture to maintain a close watch on us plebs, in a bid to scrutinise and control our every move. We feared the Big Brother scenario, and imagined that the future augured diminishing rights and rampant paranoia as the authorities would whittle away at our channels of self-expression.
And then the future arrived. There are cameras in the high streets, on public transport and throughout our workplaces. However, it appears that these are operated by private contractors paying poorly skilled staff minimum wages; staff who tend to neglect to replace the aging video tapes, and almost always lose the pertinent coverage whenever a crime gets committed within a monitored area. We're all being watched, but is anyone getting stopped?
In fact, as the Rodney King trial appeared to show, the liberal distribution of video cameras gave the populace the opportunity for redress, as the cameras were turned upon the state itself.
And once again, as that technology becomes even further miniturised, cheaper and easier to use, it appears that anyone and everyone is capable of contributing to the great social experiment, as, assisted by the internet, increasing numbers of petty criminals are incrimating themselves by providing the police with all the necessary irrefutable evidence in the form of mobile phone footage, or indeed YouTube postings. Yes, it's very Darwinian in its significance, and I'm sure this all means something very deep to somebody somewhere, but I've neither the time or the scope to go into it now.
All I know is, the case of the idiotic motorcyclist above indicates that Big Brother may well be reduced to celebrity insignificance, but the thought police are getting all the help they need from his Stupid Little Cousin.
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