Waubonsee Community College

The hidden history of big brother in America, how the death of privacy and the rise of surveillance threaten us and our democracy, Thom Hartmann

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

The hidden history of big brother in America

bibliography

1252413475

Thom Hartmann

how the death of privacy and the rise of surveillance threaten us and our democracy

"This book deals with two very large and often amorphous concepts: privacy and surveillance in the context of both government and the marketplace. Both concepts have undergone changes over the millennia of recorded human history, and those changes have dramatically sped up and expanded over the past few centuries, starting with the widespread use of the printing press in the mid- to late-15th century when books and newspapers began to proliferate across Europe and the rest of the "civilized" world by the end of the 17th century. The development of radio, television and the internet in the 20th century heightened the need to define more clearly what both concepts meant and how they applied both to governments (the "public sector") and individual and corporate players (the "private sector"). The Thought Police and Big Brother are terms introduced into the popular lexicon by George Orwell in his novel 1984; Big Brother was the overweening all-powerful government of Orwell's novel, and the Thought Police were those who managed to burrow so deeply into every citizen's behavior, speech and even thoughts that they could control or punish behavior based on the slightest deviations from orthodoxy. Orwell was only slightly off the mark. Big Brother types of government, and Thought Police types of social control, are now widespread in the world and incompatible with democracy, as I'll show in more detail later in the book. Most concerning for Americans and citizens of other "democratic" nations, the mentality of both have heavily infiltrated both American government and corporate sectors, reaching so deeply into the day-to-day details of our lives that the techniques and technologies they use can--and do--not only control, but predict our behavior"--, Provided by publisher

Introduction : the big picture of social control vs. democracy -- Part one. Big brother and social control -- Big brother and the puritans -- Big brother in the slave trade -- Big brother invents "whiteness" to keep power -- Frederick Douglass : mental emancipation leads to social emancipation -- Why the founders didn't explicitly protect our privacy -- Privacy evolves in US law -- Surveillance and social control in East Germany -- US federal and state big brothers -- Democracy required trust; authoritarianism requires fear -- Part two. Big brother and the emergence of surveillance capitalism -- The surveillance industry is booming -- Big brother goes commercial -- The bottom line? : your life is profitable -- Surveillance and social control : we change when we're watched -- Social control and social cooling -- Big data : surveillance monopolists -- Part three. Big brother and the real global info wars -- Privacy, cybersecurity, national security, and the future of warfare -- How Trump undermined our cybersecurity -- When big brother's marketing is concentrated to lethal levels -- When big brother trades your privacy for its own power and security -- Are we living with de Tocqueville's kinder and gentler big brother? -- The Trump era : a high-water mark of big brother lies for social control -- Beyond elections : big brother in social media can kill -- Part four. Putting the reins on surveillance capitalism -- Software or spyware? -- Biometrics -- The "right to be forgotten" -- YouTube, Facebook, and porn : regulate social media -- How much big brother will modern people tolerate? -- The Fourth Amendment is Not for Sale Act pf 2021 -- Are we doomed to live under big brother's watchful eye?