Moving in the Direction of China
by Jacob G. Hornberger

I just received an interesting letter from officials of Montgomery County, Maryland, advising me that I owed the county $40. The reason? The letter advised me that surveillance cameras had caught me speeding — 43 mph in a 30 mph zone. Included in the letter were 3 photographs of my vehicle with my license plate clearly visible.

I certainly didn’t have any intent to speed but since my alleged offense occurred two weeks prior to my receipt of the letter, there is no way for me to definitely state that I wasn’t speeding at the time and place alleged.

It’s not so much the ticket that bothers me as much as the creepy feeling that comes with knowing that surveillance cameras are monitoring people’s activities. Since drivers aren’t warned where the surveillance cameras are situated, one must now assume that Big Brother is watching you everywhere at all times, at least when you’re driving.

Everyone has had experience with speed traps. But everyone also knows that cops can’t be everywhere. Not so with surveillance cameras. They can be everywhere. Why, just ask the Chinese, where communist authorities have installed 300,000 surveillance cameras in Beijing alone.

According to an ominous article entitled “China’s All-Seeing Eye” by Naomi Klein in Rolling Stone, another 200,000 cameras have been installed in the city of Shenzhen, some disguised as lampposts. There are plans to install 2 million closed circuit TV cameras in the city in the next two years.

And take a wild guess who is helping the commies to install their camera system. According to Klein, U.S. defense contractors have been doing the manufacturing and supplying of the surveillance equipment. You know—the people in what President Eisenhower described as a potential threat to our democratic way of life — the U.S. military-industrial complex.

Guess what the communists are using as a justification for all this surveillance equipment. If you guessed “war on terrorism” and “national security,” go to the head of the class. Hey, the commies may be brutal but they’re not dumb. They know that “war on terrorism” and “national security” are magic terms that induce people all over the world to sacrifice their freedom and privacy for the sake of “security.”

Meanwhile, in his trip to Red China President Bush has promised not to criticize the communists for their infringements of civil liberties and privacy. He doesn’t want to insult them.

In other words, Bush will invade a country that has never attacked the United States, killing and maiming hundreds of thousands of people in the process, supposedly for the sake of “freeing” Iraqis from Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship (after those infamous WMDs failed to materialize), but he won’t dare insult one of the most brutal, murderous, tortuous, totalitarian regimes in history.

But perhaps Bush knows that the Chinese authorities will not permit him to lecture them on freedom, especially given the dictatorial powers that Bush has assumed as part of his “war on terrorism” and “national security” measures. You know, things like kidnappings, arbitrary arrests, indefinite detentions, kangaroo military tribunals, denial of due process and trial by jury, infliction of cruel and unusual punishments, including torture and sex abuse, the presidential power to wage wars of aggression against foreign countries, and the self-assumed, omnipotent power to arrest, imprison, and punish anyone anywhere simply on orders of the president. In other words, the same types of powers wielded by rulers of communist countries.

Did you ever think you’d see the day when U.S. officials would be moving in the direction of communist China, not only with respect to economic philosophy and policy (e.g., socialism, paternalism, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare, regulation, licensure, income taxation, central banking, paper money, etc.) but also with respect to civil liberties, privacy, and militarism? Think about it the next time you’re driving.

Mr. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation.

Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. Send him email.