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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | The escape from freedom -Avijit Pathak

The escape from freedom -Avijit Pathak

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published Published on Jul 17, 2019   modified Modified on Jul 17, 2019
-The Indian Express

Normalisation of surveillance destroys what sustains a civilisation — human interaction filled with trust, care.

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.

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The Indian Express, 17 July, 2019, https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/the-escape-from-freedom-cctv-camera-delhi-government-5832903/


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