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> I believe we also have the most CCTV cameras per person in the world - or at least we’re the ‘most watched’ by sone other measure. I'm very (culturally?) sur

> I believe we also have the most CCTV cameras per person in the world - or at least we’re the ‘most watched’ by sone other measure. I'm very (culturally?) surprised (and was a bit refreshing) that this is something considered negatively. In our country there's always this pressure to add more CCTVs to make the country safer, and CCTVs are generally seen as good, not bad. I don't really know about UK, but maybe it's the difference of the trust on the government that they won't surveil? Does anybody have pointers on reasons of the difference of the view?

saiya-jin 7y ago
Blindly trusting one's government ain't a good recipe for long term freedom and happiness. It might look OK or even justified now, but nobody knows what happens in the future and this is sort of one-way road. Imagine social credit system in China and go further. Sooner or later somebody craving for absolute power and control will start abusing it, be it in intelligence or government (or both). And in top politics there are tons of imbalanced folks who have pretty messed up views on the world and what is right and wrong (normal decent folks wouldn't stand long all the machinations and backstabbing happening constantly)
- pcr910303 7y ago
  > Blindly trusting one's government ain't a good recipe for long term freedom and happiness. Of course I'm not advocating blindly trusting the government, but we generally do trust the government until it reveals otherwise. After all, CCTVs are really just a tradeoff; they are for citizens safety, and accessing it is very restricted for privacy reasons. > this is sort of one-way road [snip] > Sooner or later somebody craving for absolute power and control will start abusing it, be it in intelligence or government (or both). I'm not sure if it really is; democracy is there for a reason. (We have impeached our president in 2017 for various reasons - which for many people in our country, was a living example that sometimes politics work after all :-))

saiya-jin 7y ago

Blindly trusting one's government ain't a good recipe for long term freedom and happiness. It might look OK or even justified now, but nobody knows what happens in the future and this is sort of one-way road. Imagine social credit system in China and go further. Sooner or later somebody craving for absolute power and control will start abusing it, be it in intelligence or government (or both). And in top politics there are tons of imbalanced folks who have pretty messed up views on the world and what is right and wrong (normal decent folks wouldn't stand long all the machinations and backstabbing happening constantly)

pcr910303 7y ago
> Blindly trusting one's government ain't a good recipe for long term freedom and happiness. Of course I'm not advocating blindly trusting the government, but we generally do trust the government until it reveals otherwise. After all, CCTVs are really just a tradeoff; they are for citizens safety, and accessing it is very restricted for privacy reasons. > this is sort of one-way road [snip] > Sooner or later somebody craving for absolute power and control will start abusing it, be it in intelligence or government (or both). I'm not sure if it really is; democracy is there for a reason. (We have impeached our president in 2017 for various reasons - which for many people in our country, was a living example that sometimes politics work after all :-))