Author: Daria Gușă
As a student in the UK, there are many differences between my expectations of the West and the reality. As citizens of Eastern Europe, of the less developed part of the world (as we are told endlessly by the Western states), we all swallowed this dream of the West, “the American Dream”, as small children, even though those from the same my generation lusted after the superior technology shown to us daily on Instagram by American influencers, and those with more life experience than me hid from the controls of the communist regime to observe the developed world more closely. Unfortunately, the relative utopia that was present in the West a few decades ago is gone, and the technological advances that made the West successful in the first place are exactly what now facilitates its downfall. And we, the Romanians, continue to yearn for these technologies and accept their presentation as a bridge to a better life.
George Orwell’s book 1984, my favorite by the way, appeared at the end of World War II as a warning. The dystopian world presented in it is controlled by Big Brother, the all-knowing and watching government that encourages children to betray their parents. A world where history is altered to validate the present, where peace is defined by continuous war, where the right to free speech is allowed as long as it is used to agree with the system and controlled through permanent fear instilled in population.
This social critique, or rather Orwell’s prediction, demonstrates the general theoretical notion of Michel Foucault’s poststructuralism, both of which are based on philosopher Jeremy Bentham’s (1748-1832) vision of the panopticon. The Panopticon was invented by Bentham at the end of the eighteenth century as a revolutionary disciplinary system to build prisons and other state institutions. The premise is simple: the cells are organized in a circular fashion, and in the middle of them is an observation tower where the guard sits, hidden from the prisoners. Even though he can’t watch them all at the same time, the risk that he might look at them at any second keeps all the prisoners in a state of constant fear and alarm. In Foucault’s perception, exactly the same phenomenon is present in the modern world between government or corporations and the population. When we walk around the city, we all know that on every street corner, in front of every store or in every parking lot there is a surveillance camera. When we have a conversation in a restaurant, it is obvious that the other tables can listen. And in the privacy of your own home, you can be recorded by your phone or smart home systems, which through mechanisms such as Siri or Alexa listen and record every word. Modern technology has brought us all to the point of constant tracking, which while easy to ignore, never leaves us at any point throughout the day. Through 5G-type technologies that provide us with a permanent signal and facilitate our constant messaging and posting, we have surrendered our privacy and the right to personal information.
Of course, some of these consequences are inevitable, and those willing to give up these technologies will only find themselves in a sea of people who have not, but through whose devices they too can be recorded. Although we all already know about these methods, even if some still consider opinions like mine conspiracy theories, what inspired me to write this article is the discovery of some methods here in the UK that are not yet available in Romania, but I am sure that soon they will be. For example, the price of car insurance is dependent on a “black box”, a box attached to the car that monitors everything and gives you notes at the end of each day: from speed and lane keeping to the locations where you drive and at what time. The insurance price is directly dependent on these notes. So if, for example, you go to visit your mother every evening, and she happens to live in a neighborhood considered dangerous by car, you will have to pay a few percent more at the end of the month. Of course, there is the option not to install such a box, but this will mean that you will pay more than double at the end of the year (if you are a safe driver). Another example is that of ultra-modern neighborhoods on the outskirts of big cities: in theory they are tempting because of the luxury, safety and less polluted air they offer. Unfortunately, they come together with a group of neighbors encouraged to report any “crime” committed: if, God forbid, you forgot to take out the trash one day, you receive a notification from the administration. If you want to have some friends visit, their car number must be reported the day before together with the time and duration of the visit (the maximum being two hours), or they will wake up with a fine of £100 (about 575 RON) from the administration, notified by the neighbors that you allowed yourself to take up an extra parking space, which would otherwise have remained empty anyway. Sounds incredibly similar to what Orwell described, doesn’t it?
Just as in 1984 the country was kept in a perpetual state of panic and war in order not to unite the people against the government, but only against the enemies of the government, the constant wars in this so-called era of “peace” have the same goal: as long as the population is indoctrinated with hatred against a common and external adversary (terrorism, Russia, China), he will not have time to revolt against his own system and think about all the internal injustices. There are also many invented fights that distract the population in the West, the most burning being the presented fight of LGBTQ+ members, who enjoy equal status and rights. Although it is true that our tolerance towards this group leaves much to be desired, the involvement of children in this struggle divides even the West: just a week ago there was a case in which a Christian primary school teacher in Nottingham was fired for refusing to encourage an eight-year-old girl’s transition to a boy and to use male pronouns (https://www.gbnews.com/news/nottinghamshire-news-teacher-sacked-pronouns-row-child). Another similar case is the Mermaids foundation, promoted by many British celebrities, which offers children who want to transition hormonal medications and breast-flattening corsets without any medical training and without parental consent (https://www.dailymail.co. uk/news/article-11251357/Trans-charity-Mermaids-faces-watchdog-probe-childrens-chest-flattening-binders.html). Both very serious cases, both highly debated in the Western media. Unfortunately, the creation of such serious cases seems to be aimed at directing the public discourse as far as possible from the concrete problems in their country and abroad, further dividing the population.
In conclusion, I do not want to say that the West does not have many qualities to aspire to, such as the university system or higher salaries. Nor do I want to insult Romania, Great Britain or any community. Rather, I want to inspire you to reflect, and ask everyone the question: is it really better in the West? And if the answer is no, why are we all constantly trying to emulate them? Why is any event seen positively in the media one that brings us closer to their reality? Conspiracy theories and dystopian novels have unfortunately become reality, and all the technologies that facilitate our daily lives only make us prisoners of the world controlled by big data.
P.S. A quote from 1984: “Until they become conscious they will not rebel, and until they rebel they cannot become conscious.”
