Eye-in-the-sky

The Obama administration has authorized the use of domestic drones. This has come under fire from the usual suspects, the ACLU.

But beyond the knee-jerk reaction from the usual suspects, there is a larger context. The Obama administration is a conspiracy theorist’s dream (or nightmare) come true. There’s almost nothing too “out there” that couldn’t be true of this administration. Take Eric Holder’s exhortation about “brainwashing” the public against guns. You can’t make that stuff up.

All those nutty films and TV dramas about Byzantine government conspiracies begin to acquire a certain credibility under Obama, Holder, Sebelius, Chu, the EPA, &c.

The use of domestic drones conjures up images of those dystopian, futuristic regimes where ubiquitous aerial drones ceaselessly monitor the populace and hunt down declared enemies of the state.

Are we really that far from a time when you glance up to see armed aerial drones surveil ballparks, backyards, playgrounds, beaches, baseball diamonds? Where aerial drones silently monitor and record the activities of kids and citizens as they jog in the park, play Frisbee, play volleyball, go on a picnic, have a BBQ, have a birthday party. An omnipresent eye-in-the-sky that randomly spies on the populace. 

From what I’ve ready, England combines pervasive domestic surveillance with pervasive crime. All those security cameras haven’t made it safe.