In 1984, we were relieved when as readers of Orwell we verified that his worst fears hadn't been absolutely confirmed, although Big Brother lived among us, here and there, in both the East and the West.
The state wanted to hold all citizens in its fist, but the warm breezes of freedom stirred us and on sunny days utopia still seemed possible. How unfortunate and incredulous we were back then! "1984", which Orwell had used as a "warning" in the title for his novel, turned out to be a date like any other. Almost nothing else in the novel was wrong, though there were certain glaring anarchronisms in the pages of this literary work, but today it's necessary to remind oneself that it was written in the Forties and that since then the world has experienced spectacular growth in the scientific fields. Every day, the reality of the moon landing [in 1969] is questioned more and more by people who say it was a cinematographic creation in which the great director S. Kubrick participated.
It's not a strange idea, given the fact that the Americans were fighting the Soviets "to the death" in the Space Race. Yankee industrialists and policymakers gambled their credibility and financial fortunes on winning that race. It's all good in the Space Race, as it is in both love and war.
We are convinced that, in the aftermath of S-11, all of us are "in the sight lines," all of us are suspicious, potential terrorists -- and for that reason we will be watched even more and have our civil liberties curtailed even further. Has Big Brother definitely arrived? On 7 September [2001], four days before the attack on the Twin Towers, the activists in the Surveillance Camera Players (SCP) stood in front of surveillance cameras in Times Square to protest the surveillance of public places. After the attack, these activists have received threats and unwanted [cyber] visits from paramilitary groups. But they [the SCP] continue their fight against public surveillance. They are willing to travel down an enormous road full of obstacles and dangers to be able to defeat Big Brother. The utopia lives.
[Written by Nel Amaro and published in the 8 October 2001 issue of La Nueva Espana. Translated from the Spanish by an Internet robot and checked by a hooman being.]
Contact the NY Surveillance Camera Players
By e-mail SCP@notbored.org
By snail mail: SCP c/o NOT BORED! POB 1115, Stuyvesant Station, New York City 10009-9998