I am not really a fan of dystopian science fiction, but I have quite a lot of it. And because of that I decided to wait a while before I wrote this post. I waited to see if I would calm down. I didn't.
This week we saw the announcement of the Government's new Anti-Terror Strategies. And you know what? They make me really really fucking uncomfortable. Why does it make me feel like this?
Shopping centre and store managers will be among 60,000 workers trained to help deal with terrorist threats.
Will they get special armbands and powers? Are we, the public being trained to spy on each other?
I appreciate that this could be considered quite a simplistic interpretation of what these strategies mean, but I personally think that we could be in danger of slipping down a very dangerous slope. If indeed we aren't already sliding down it with our eyes closed already. (See my post of Phillip Pullman's essay here .)
It is all very well saying that this private group of citizens will only use this training for Terrorist threats, but at the end of the day, who are the Terrorists? At the moment, they are extremist Muslim fundamentalists. What happens when that definition changes? And even before the goalposts change and we have a new enemy to be fearful of, what does this mean to the UK as we know it now. Do we really need specifically trained supermarket supervisors, and security guards watching us while we shop to see if we are doing anything suspicious? What is deemed suspicious? Who makes those judgement calls? Why does this warrant a special type of person looking out for them?
The reasons we are given for why we need these strategies is because this is New, and More Scary. That These People cannot be reasoned with, and we Must Keep Safe and Vigilent. So what, more scary than bombs going off in London parks, and outside major tourist attractions? I grew up with the IRA bombing London. I grew up with my dad coming home to tell us that he had just missed being bombed, and that he had to hang on to the scaffolding on the building he was working on as it shook from the vibrations. Terrorist threats to London are nothing new. There have been no bins in any of London's train stations for years now, and those that do have some kind of litterbags, well, they are see-through. Any unattended bags are watched suspiciously and reported. So what really is the difference?
The difference is now that there will be people around that will be specially trained to watch you and report on you if you are doing anything suspicious.
That IS scary. Partly because the training might not be that extensive and because "suspicious" is a very subjective idea.
ReplyDelete