Reality Nudges Ahead of Dystopia

Radley Balko | April 1, 2007

Of Britain's 4.2 million interconnected CCTV surveillance cameras, a whopping 32 are within 200 yards of George Orwell's home.

 

The CCTV system, by the way, is the wet dream of several big city American mayors, including Chicago's Richard Daley and New York's Michael Bloomberg.

 

Related article on the scary rise of the British Nanny State here.

 

Finally, in a story so bewildering it may retire the entire concept of "Orwellian" once and for all, the company that owns the copyright to Orwell's 1984 recently sent a chill letter to YouTube over the now-famous anti-Hillary "Vote Different" video because, at the end, it makes a reference to the Orwell's novel, the implication being that copyright law prevents anyone from citing 1984 in a work attempting to warn us that the state is ascending to 1984-like proportions. Which probably means this entire post is illegal, too.

 

Unfortunately, there isn't an April Fool's joke anywhere in this post.