Avijit Pathak - The escape from freedom: Normalisation of surveillance
Even though Delhi
Government’s decision to install CCTV cameras in school classrooms has
generated an interesting debate, it is important to see beyond the classrooms,
and reflect more intensely on the meaning of living in a society that
normalises and sanctifies surveillance. As an ideology that seeks to become
hegemonic, the practice of surveillance justifies itself through the discourse
of “safety”, “security” and “transparency”. And, possibly, we have accepted it.
Hence, we no longer
feel humiliated or insulted when at airports and railway stations we allow the
security guards and cops to objectify us with a gaze of doubt, and touch every
part of our body. In fact, we demand more and more surveillance. From shops to
schools, from housing societies to office corridors, and from the living rooms
to the elevators in high rise buildings — the all-pervading presence of CCTV
cameras proves one thing: We love to be controlled, observed, normalised and
disciplined. Even if the likes of George Orwell and Michel Foucault express
their anxiety over these technologies of surveillance, most of us seem to be
quite happy with it.
For me, this “escape
from freedom”, to use social psychologist Erich Fromm’s vocabulary, is most
dangerous. To begin with, let us see the way we have begun to define ourselves
in an age that otherwise boasts of progress and development. Everyone, we
are induced to think, is a potential suspect: a criminal, a terrorist, a
suicide bomber, a rapist, a murderer. Trust is naive and idiotic. Doubt
everybody. Scrutinise everybody. Not only that, we have also begun to believe
that we are inherently irresponsible. That given an opportunity, we would
escape from our responsibilities and hence we must allow ourselves to be
perpetually monitored, observed and disciplined.
In other words, we are
incapable of living responsibly, peacefully and freely. And then, a
terrorist attack somewhere, a young girl’s suicide in the washroom of a school,
or a psychopath insulting the dignity of a woman in his office cubicle: The
recurrence of ugliness shatters our confidence, and convinces us further that
surveillance is good and desirable. Big Boss must control us for our own
safety... read more:
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/the-escape-from-freedom-cctv-camera-delhi-government-5832903/
