Reviewer L.A. Little is a professional trader, author and daily contributor to the trading site www.tatoday.com where L.A. strives to help others take control of their financial destiny. His book, Trade Like the Little Guy (on Amazon) champions the idea that small traders can be successful. With a Masters in Telecommunications and undergraduate degrees in Philosophy, CIS and Computer Science, L.A.’s interests are greater than the time he has to pursue them.
Author:
Ross Clark
Publisher:
Encounter Books
ISBN-10:
1-59403-248-3: 978-1-59403-248-6
Author:
Ross Clark
Publisher:
Encounter Books
ISBN-10:
1-59403-248-3: 978-1-59403-248-6
Click Here To Purchase The Road to Big Brother: One Man's Struggle Against the Surveillance Society
So
many times the obvious contradictions that surround us go unnoticed.
In our high-tech society, one such contradiction is the apparent
acceptance by the general public in the increasingly pervasive use of
electronic surveillance to examine their every action. Author Ross
Clark, in his book The Road To Big Brother - One Man's Struggle
Against the Surveillance Society, ponders this willingness of the
public to be spied upon and concludes that so few apparently are
aware of just how extensive the data collection is.
As a result,
Clark ends up taking us on a journey in a somewhat sarcastic manner to
observe such spying. From the talking lamp post to the
inability to move around Britain via automobile without having your
picture taken, Big Brother is everywhere. But who's really watching
and what happens to all that collected data? The real contradiction
ends up being the rather uselessness of the surveillance exercise
itself.
This 130 page manuscript provides a rather intriguing look into just how much electronic data gathering occurs. While the book centers primarily on surveillance in England, some examples are United States specific. Independent of where it occurs, Clark keeps asking why and what for. His pointed question regarding the real value of such excessive data collection rings true when you consider that the more data collected simply means the more errors present within that data set. And how might this error laden data be used - to deny one of a job or credit or even worse? Throughout the book, Clark drives home the reoccurring themes that the more data collected, the more useless the data and that irregardless of its usefulness, the authorities cannot hide their apparent zeal to collect more. Somewhere lost in that zeal is the continued debasement of your civil liberties.
All in all, The Road to Big Brother is an interesting and thought provoking read on the subject of surveillance in our societies - a practice that has become quite fashionable and pervasive despite the questionable benefits obtained. It's 1984 in the 21st century and one mans attempt to ask us why? Why should we allow this and what benefit does it really provide?
Personally I found the book quite interesting yet frustrating - frustrating because it reminds me even more that, despite the guarantees of the Bill of Rights that no person should be deprived of life, liberty, or property without the due process of law, we see those rights continually encroached almost daily by a government intent on monitoring our every move. For that reason, I thank Clark for doing his part to raise the awareness in both Britain and now the United States.
Click Here To Purchase The Road to Big Brother: One Man's Struggle Against the Surveillance Society