FASCISM REDUX?
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(por gentileza do Professor Doutor Mendo Castro Henriques)
Max-Manuel Rodriguez Navarro [MMRN]: If "fascism" is coming back, it will come from governments, not from society. And I am afraid many will welcome it if it promises stability and financial and labor market improvements.
John Heelan [JH]: Â If Max-Manuel really means "totalitarianism" from Left or Right-wing governments, rather than fascism (which is initiated as a grass-roots movement), I agree with him completely. Â The infrastructure for direct population control already exists and is increasing day-by-day on the justification of fighting terrorism. Here are some examples of infrastructure elements from the UK (many other countries have similar elements):
1. Creation and maintenance of massive government-controlled databases, combining cradle-to-grave details of every citizen with lax control on those who are allowed to consult those databases.
2. mplementation of facial-recognition equipment to detect and track individuals at will (currently being trialed in Manchester City and some UK airports).
3. Databases containing the registration of TV licences and vehicle taxation (the latter automatically issuing fines if vehicle tax is not renewed.)
4. Government departments that operate automatic electronic "sniffing" of all emails (Project Echelon), website hits and demand that phone companies provide records of all calls over a seven-year period.
5. Prevalence of daily surveillance by CCTV cameras (estimates suggest that every UK citizen is observed some 300 times each day).
6. Prevalence of so-called "Road Safety" cameras to detect motoring offences that result in fines being issued automatically.
7. Rapid increase in the number of Number Plate Recognition Systems linked to car and driver databases automatically recording who was where and when.
8. Increase in "Security" laws allowing citizens to be held without charge (UK government's plan to increase the time to 42 days passed by House of Commons but recently defeated in the House of Lords and put on the back-burner--as was the intention to hold some inquests into deaths in secret on "security" grounds).
9. Creation of quasi-policemen (Police Community Support Officers) staffed mainly by those unable to meet the stricter requirements of fully qualified police officers.
10. Government adverts encouraging an "informer network" on crime and abuse of state benefits.
11. Inappropriate local government use of undercover surveillance legislation to detect truants, dogs fouling public areas, illegal parking and the commission of other misdemeanours.
An infrastructure already exists in the UK to institute totalitarian control, whether Left or Right. Â
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As a past designer and implementer of similar systems, I now shudder to realise the nature of the Frankenstein monster I and my colleagues in the IT industry have
released on the world!
released on the world!
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