by Viktoria Kamuf

„War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.”

You are looking at the three slogans of Oceania’s one and only party in George Orwell’s famous book “Nineteen Eighty-Four”. The novel tells the story of a dystopian future, where there is no right to privacy and the state machinery observes, oppresses and controls its citizens. It is commonly appointed one of the most important books of the last century and received some kind of cult status. Even people who have not read it often refer to the ominous Big Brother. Till today, Orwell’s fictional world appears everywhere, whether in newspaper articles on the NSA affair, as graffiti or in an artist’s works (the list of songs inspired by “Nineteen Eighty-Four” is incredibly long).

Yet, the year 1984 already passed and the dictatorships of Hitler, Stalin and Franco, which mainly inspired Orwell to write “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, ended several decades ago. Although there is still a lot which has to be improved, it seems like the world is becoming a less violent and a more democratic place, as there are always people who stand up for their rights instead of blindly following their leaders. Thanks to media and internet, news can spread much faster than 50 years ago and are able to reach people all over the world. Thus, it became more difficult for governments to hide information, so their citizens and other countries can hardly ignore what is going on out there. Gladly, an Orwellian world seems to be far away from our everyday life.

This optimistic view was recently proven wrong by a man named Dave Eggers. He wrote a book which is called “The Circle”, which outlines a dystopian future, where the internet, but also political and social life are controlled by the company which gave the book its name. Some people might say, that Eggers’ book is an update of Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, but this would underestimate its quality and distinctiveness. However, it is nearly as alarming as Orwell’s dystopia. Eggers tells the story of Mae, a young woman who starts her new job at the Circle. Frequently there are new solutions introduced to make every part of people’s lives easier – to observe. Mae experiences a new and exciting world, where one has access to every piece of information one wants. Through omnipresent cameras, smartphones and screens privacy has become alien and is seen as a drawback for a world which could be free of wars, crime and human rights violations. You might find this thought disturbing and disagree with it. Of course, in our today’s world observance has still a very negative connotation and is mostly associated with totalitarian regimes. But what if everyone is observing everyone? When crime is not persecuted by the police but by the neighbours who saw the burglar on a live cam from your living room? What if you immediately knew when your boyfriend or girlfriend is betraying you or that your grandma did not have a heart attack but is just napping on her couch – through live cams?  “The Circle” builds a world which seems to be perfect, complete. With every innovation comes a wide range of advantages which seem to be undeniable. And what is most important: the people contribute voluntarily to the system. They like to be watched and to watch others, they do not even have the incentive to commit a crime anymore, because all their friends would see the embarrassing act on screen. “Secrets are Lies. Sharing is Caring. Privacy is Theft.” are the slogans of the future.

Does this sound strange to you? Just rethink your own actions. When you meet someone at a party, you search him on Facebook. When you eat something delicious you post it on Instagram. When you want to be recognized by someone, you click the “Like”-button. We do not admit it, but we already are part of a system of observance. Eggers’ utopian world is not that utopian at all. By joining social networks we contribute to it voluntarily and we are still ignoring the dangers of this development. A totalitarian regime would be tangible for us, the internet is not. Whereas wars and torture lead to huge protests, social pressure and the control of our privacy rarely does. Therefore we drift towards a new society of control, where Big Brother does not have one, but many faces. There might be no crime – but there will be also no freedom. Maybe, our world should always stay a little bit incomplete, perfectly imperfect, to ensure, that people keep their minds and eyes open and engage in social and political processes.

Bildquelle: Jiaren Lau über Wikimedia Commons

ein Kommentar zum US-Datenskandal von Camil Kotkowski

Facebook, Google, Skype, Microsoft. Alle in einem Pott.
Und nicht nur auf diese Plattformen haben die IT-Experten der National Security Agency Zugriff. Nachdem der Whistleblower Edward Snowden mit 4 PCs rund um den Globus gereist ist und das Überwachungsprogramm PRISM (Apronym für „Planning Tool for Resource Integration, Synchronization, and Management“, ergibt englisch prism „Prisma“) bekannt gemacht hat, ersucht er nun Asyl auf der ganzen Welt.

Das Überwachungsprogramm stieß nicht nur auf großen Protest bei den Bürgern der betroffenen Länder, die, zu Recht, massiv ihre eigenen Rechte verletzt sehen, sondern auch bei sehr vielen europäischen Regierungen. In letzter Zeit laufen sehr viele Anzeigen beim deutschen Staat ein, weil dieser zulässt, dass fremde Regierungen seine Bürger grundlos überwachen. In den deutschen Regierungskreisen wird die Situation gerade, Regierungssprecher Steffen Seibert zufolge, geprüft. In Bezug auf Deutschland sagte Barack Obama: „…letztlich arbeiten wir so eng zusammen, dass es fast keine Informationen gibt, die wir nicht zwischen unseren Ländern haben.“  So rechtfertigen die Amerikaner also diesen Eingriff in die Privatsphäre von Millionen deutschen Bürgern? Obamas Vizeberater meinte, man „verfüge über etablierte Geheimdienstkanäle mit allen europäischen Partnern, zudem gebe es einen “US-EU-Geheimdienstdialog”, der Möglichkeiten biete, diese Dinge zu besprechen.“ Wie kann der deutsche Staat so einen massiven Bruch der Menschenrechte zulassen? Nach außen weisen der Bundesnachrichtendienst und die Bundesregierung die Mitwissenschaft von sich. Allerdings gewährt Letztere dann aber Edward Snowden kein Asylrecht, obwohl dieser unter das  Zeugenschutzprogramm der etlichen Klagen der Regierung fallen würde. Die wichtigste Person des Überwachungsprogramms ist Vier-Sterne-General Keith Alexander, der seinen Sitz in der Hauptverwaltung der NSA in Fort Meade hat, verteidigt das Programm. Dieser General ist nach deutschem Recht also ein Krimineller. Ebenfalls die vermuteten Verantwortlichen beim BND. Jene würden vor deutschen Gerichten landen wegen „Ausspähen und Abfangen von Daten“ und „Geheimdienstlicher Agententätigkeit“. Doch was hat sich noch getan außer kritischen Äußerungen seitens der Politiker? Nichts, der Staat handelt nicht. Der Whistleblower sitzt immer noch in der Transitzone des Moskauers Flughafen. In 21 Ländern erbat er Asyl, es kamen 20 Absagen unter dem Druck der USA, nur Venezuela „überlegt“ es sich.

Der ehemals externe NSA-Mitarbeiter wuchs in der Nähe des NSA-Hauptquartiers Fort Meade im US-Bundesstaat Maryland, südlich von Baltimore, auf. Schon am College besuchte er Kurse, die sich mit Cybersicherheit auseinander setzten. Aber was war sein Motiv, um vom begabten Netz-Administrator zum „Staatsfeind“ zu werden? Die Freunde des Highschool-Abbrechers meinen, dass Snowden immer an die amerikanischen Grundprinzipen geglaubt hat und laut seiner ehemaligen Freundin Mavanee Anderson hat ihn seine Arbeit bei der NSA zu einer „Gewissenskrise“ gebracht. Vermutlich konnte er seine Werte und seine Moral nicht mehr mit seiner Arbeit verbinden, weshalb er von vielen Menschen zum Helden deklariert wird.

Bild via Wikimedia Commons