Surveillance Technique

By Jose Figueroa

Zara Gelsey, in “The FBI is Reading over Your

Shoulder,” claims that, through the Library Records

Provision of the Patriot Act, the FBI is indirectly

controlling what we read and how we think. Irregardless of

the FBI, she views reading as access to information and not

“as an indictment” (Gelsey), as the FBI potentially views

it. Viet Dinh, on the other hand, in “How the USA Patriot

Act Defends Democracy,” bases his support of the Patriot

Act on "ideals" of our constitutional democracy and

"techniques" necessary to secure those ideals. To Dinh,

“ideals” represent freedoms protecting the individual from

the power of state, and “technique” as a tool use by the

government to surveillance individuals. In addition, he

states that the Patriot Act “gives the government the tools

it needs to fight terrorism while observing the liberties

of citizens” (Dinh). Nevertheless, Dinh’s statement could

be viewed as “doublethink” from the pages of George

Orwell’s 1984 due to the fact that he is saying that the

Patriot Act is good (respects civil liberties), and yet is

acting as surveillance (beyond that permitted by the

constitution). This surveillance tool violates the first

amendment. His contradiction is telling us that we must re-

affirm our ideals during a terrorist act, but how that

can’t be done if we are being surveillance. We can’t defend

our freedoms due to the fact that assumptions are results

from surveillance.

Gelsey sees the Patriot Act as a surveillance tool use

by the government. She feels bother by the fact that FBI is

visiting libraries and demanding records of patrons. In

addition, they don’t have to demonstrate as she said

“probable cause” to request these records. To Gelsey;

reading does say something about one’s interest, but it may

say different things to different people, therefore, the

act backfires. The surveillance imposed in the Patriot Act

violates the first amendment instead of re-enforcing it.

She supports the fact that surveillance could be good, but

it also gets out of hand. As we can see in her essay, the

type of surveillance implied turns out to be bias due to

the fact that the observers make their own conclusions and

misperceptions. Nevertheless, she applies this scenery with

George Orwell’s book 1984. She takes Winston for instance

and makes comparison of the type of surveillance he

undergoes and the results of it. We clearly see the

similarities between the two, on how she feels and the turn

out of Winston in 1984. We see that Gelsey feels distracted

by being surveillance and her reaction is finding herself

reading thru the watchers eyes. As in for Winston,

“excessive surveillance trained him to self-censor”

(Gelsey) making his creative activities inflexible.

On the other hand, Dinh has a different point of view

from Gelsey’s on the Patriot Act. He supports the idea of

the Patriot Act and bases his support on “ideals” (Dinh)

and “techniques” (Dinh). In his essay, Dinh makes use of

“doublethink” by stating that the Patriot Act is good due

to the fact it respects civil liberties. However, is

considering “doublethink” because he also said that it’s

acting as surveillance on what’s beyond consider by the

constitution. In addition, one can’t make use of his/hers

“ideals” because the “technique” is already implied by the

government, in this case would be the act of going thru

library records. Perhaps, the techniques use to

surveillance those ideals of individuals are violating the

ideals itself. Therefore, the fact that he said that we

must re-affirm the ideals of our constitution and allow

government techniques contradicts his point and leads to

“doublethink” as is seen in George Orwell’s book 1984.

Knowing that you are being surveillance creates a

different feeling in our way of being. It automatically

triggers us to self-censor and creates avoidance. Just the

fact that we are being surveillance scares us and

intimidates us from fully using our civil liberties or

“ideals” as Dinh refers to them. Perhaps, those freedoms

that “ideals” are supposed to represent are not taken into

consideration after all. As in George Orwell’s book 1984,

Winston forgets and even what was intended in the first

place. That’s what Gelsey seems to get across. The fact

that the FBI is investigating behind our backs and creates

a fear among us that leads to censorship after we are

aware. Nevertheless, we, the readers are scare to even go

back to our daily routine due to the fact that we don’t

know if we are being surveillance. That’s where our civil

liberties or “ideals” as Dinh calls them are being

violated.

Many readers like to read a variety of material. But

what does that say about someone? Just like Gelsey said

“what one reads does say something about one’s interest –

but it may say different things to different people”

(Gelsey). That being said, the FBI with the Library Records

Provision Act gets a distorted or bias result to prevent

terrorist acts. Reason being is due to the fact that a book

said the interests of someone not the motive or the purpose

of it. Therefore, individual’s freedoms are being violated

by the “techniques” use by the government, this case the

use of surveillance over individual’s freedoms. As we are

aware, surveillance tends to get out of hand but what if

our liberties are at stake, would you want surveillance to

get out of hand? Personally I wouldn’t want to be

surveillance and lose my liberties or “ideals.”