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Tag Archives: escape
Government’s new mechanism of surveillance
Few days ago a friend of mine added this article on Facebook. It talks about the new legislation that makes internet providers to create and store users’ profiles, that include information like credit card numbers and browsing history.
The bill was passed under disguise of protection children from internet pornography, but in reality it is a way of policing internet users. Just the way foot patrol was introduced into neighborhoods for the good reason of protecting community, but ended up to be a surveillance mechanism.
This bill is extension of our debates on how much surveillance is appropriate and on how much we allow government to interfere in our private life. It seems like government takes more and more steps towards tracking individuals. It resonates with the argument of societies of control. Control, unlike discipline, doesn’t require enclosed buildings to limit people’s ability to move in space, in fact, it doesn’t need to to do that, instead it only needs to know where every given individual is at the given time.
The bill discussed above, gives government opportunity to track our location in internet space. State acquires precious tracking mechanism of the space that becomes increasingly important in our society. Many of us spend as much time in online world as in the physical one and many do so because they can escape mechanisms of control. Well, I guess there are less chances to do so now.
Real Life Superheroes
We often talk about deviance and deviants as people who do things outside of society in a negative way. This week I watched “Superheroes” a documentary on HBO about people who consider themselves real-life superheroes and do what superheroes do: fight crime. Clearly these people are deviating from the societal norm by dressing up in costumes and fighting crime themselves rather than relying on law enforcement officers to do so. While at first they seem a bit foolish, their intentions are actually quite sweet. Most of the superheroes had bad childhoods and were teased and abused. Since they had been impacted personally by crime, they decided that they would dedicate their time to fighting crime.
One of the crime-fighting organizations even managed to get a non-profit status, although most of them are considered a liability by police officers. I think this documentary was so interesting to me because it dealt with people who are considered “at risk” for becoming criminals, who in fact did the opposite. While it’s hard to know how legitimate the portrayal of the superheroes was, the presence of a camera may have influenced their actions one way or another, it seems that it was pretty accurate.
I really enjoyed watching this documentary and would highly recommend it. While it doesn’t seem like they are too efficient at combating actual crime, it does seem like they are making a difference in their daily encounters with people and through this documentary, by inspiring people to make a difference. Corny, but real.
Hannibal the Cannibal
As I mentioned on a response to one of the blogs psycopathy has always been of my interest. Unlike the picture on the left and the Sex Offender Registry for instance, psycopaths don’t wear a tag nor do they list themselves anywhere as such.
According to Psycopathic Behavior, by Charles Montaldo, psychopaths are “generally cunning, manipulative and know the difference between right and wrong but dismiss it as applying to them, [they are also] incapable of normal emotions such as love.” On a more simplistic level psychopaths are characterized as charming, intelligent (at different levels of course), appear to be rational however egocentric, either antisocial or very outgoing, etc.
If there’s one person I automatically think about when I hear the word “psychopath” is Anthony Hopkins in the Hannibal Lecter series, specifically in The Silence of the Lambs. In this brilliant work Anthony Hopkins plays a “cannibalistic serial killer” who is taken into custody to help find another murderer; Buffalo Bill. Lecter is seen as pleasant, courteous, educated, incredibly patient not to mention intelligent, among other traits that are very hard to link with the image we get when we think of a mentally imbalanced person.
As I mentioned Lecter’s purpose is to help find Buffalo Bill. Clarice, an FBI agent that’s assigned to the case, is to get all the information she can from Lecter that would direct her to the murderer. As it turns out Lecter agrees to tell her about Bill if she shares information about her childhood with him, which she does although she’s previosly warned no to do so. Eventually, Clarice gets what she’s looking for thanks to Lecter, goes after the killer and the rest is history.
If you’d like to see Lecter in action Click Here.
**Warning: Brilliant but Bloody**
Nothing New Yokers can’t stomach tho (enter sarcasm here LOL). Enjoy!
