Brave New World, or, the State of the Union

For those of us in class who were on the side of the Savage, this article on current events might be of interest. The power of the State in the UK is expanding; the government will be able to watch everyone at all times who steps foot outside, and soon the machines doing the watching will be equipped with so-called "nonlethal" weapons. The US is working on the exact same project, which is seen as a solution to thi problem: how can people be stopped from doing things the State doesn't want them to do, that doesn't necessitate the murder of a whole bunch of civilians? Article from Wired.co.uk via Alex Jones' InfoWars.

In the UK surveillance helicopters are being replaced by modified military aircraft drones. The drones will at first perform exactly the same duty as the helicopters, except of course the surveillance will be ramped up to be watching everyone in public at all times. But because a drone can't stop any wrong-doing by mere observation, the UK drones are being outfitted with loudspeakers, so a person watching what the drone is capturing can verbally scold wrong-doers.

But sometimes a scolding is not enough -- so the drones are also being outfitted with nonlethal weapons, such as the LRAD or Long-Range Acoustic Device, to drive people away from a location. The LRAD emits incredibly loud, piercing sounds and make excellent deterrents when focused directly on groups of people, such as US civilian protesters. Of course the makers of the LRAD (American Technology Corp.) have preferred to call the LRAD a "device" rather than a weapon, and use terms such as "deterrent tones" and "influencing behaviour" to describe its function, but as the LRAD can cause hearing damage and incapacitates anyone that isn't wearing heavy-duty ear protection, to not call it a weapon is trivializing its nature. (As an aside, by pretending it's just a device, ATC can get around the ban on selling arms to China.) So, if you're thinking of protesting, be sure to bring your ear protection.

But sometimes being driven away is not enough -- you have to catch the bad guys sometimes, right? -- so the drones are also being outfitted with high-intensity strobe lights which "can cause dizziness, disorientation and loss of balance making it virtually impossible to run away." If you're doing something the State doesn't like, you can now be completely incapacitated by a robot! According to the Wired article the US is already in the process of putting these strobe lights on unmanned helicopters i.e. modified drones. So you should bring dark goggles to the protest along with your ear protection.

But what if incapacitation by strobe light isn't enough to stop the baddies? The drones may be outfitted with such "nonlethal weapons" as tear gas, rubber bullets, and taser stun guns. ...Nonlethal? Tear gas is poisonous (lachrymators can cause blindness in high doses) and has been demonstrated to have lasting negative impacts on human health; rubber bullets aren't "nonlethal" especially if they're aimed at the head, and drones don't have the capability to aim at anything less general than "at your body"; and taser stun guns have killed more than 351 people since June 2001, when US police forces started using them as methods of forcing submission (instead of just as a last resort before using lethal force).

Scary? Nah -- just don't publicly do anything the State doesn't like (whatever that happens to be this year) and don't act even mildly suspicious, and they promise to keep you safe & free from terrorism. This excursion into a brave new world is for your own good, after all.