This story about the steps taken to monitor children in a Houston school district has me thinking. First, how successful are these systems at actually stopping someone from committing another violent crime once he's set his mind to it? Most of these things have been meticulously planned, and it doesn't seem that constant monitoring would really help that much. Surveillance would get faster response times if implemented correctly, but alone it isn't a preventative measure.Once you get into restricting who can go where, things get more secure, but they also quickly descend to that Orwellian level where personal freedom could be easily ignored "for their own good." When I have kids (I know, I know, god forbid) I won't want random people able to walk into their schools unchallenged, but I also don't want them to be lulled into forfeiting their civil liberties. I don't know the answer. But I do wonder how children today growing up with this kind of surveillance in schools will view future impositions by other governing bodies. Will they be more likely to allow constant, imposing surveillance in their jobs, their cars, on their cell phones and emails, or by their government? Will constant surveillance at a young age inure them to threats on their civil liberties later in life? It seems likely, but maybe, just maybe, it would create the opposite effect and produce a backlash once their kids are able to vote. Of course, that's giving people a lot of credit, and while I'm prone to give children a hell of a lot more credit than most adults, I guess I'm still a pessimist at the moment.
1 comment:
First of all, I think it's a GREAT idea for you to have children! Concerning the thoughts on civil liberties...troubling. Children do seem to accept that "protection" is always there, yet, we are a selfish lot, which could prove to be to our advantage. Government agencies curtailing what we want to do...? We need to continue to teach self reliance, history and democracy. And we need good parents, as you will be.
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