The common population would stand aghast as these people did one another in. It would not stop once the surveillance mechanism was there. It would eat generation after generation of KGB members until it decapitated and lobotomized the entire population.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- A surveillance state causes internal violence that eventually destroys the population including the enforcers.
- In plain terms
- Surveillance leads to endless fighting that kills everyone involved.
- What can you take from it?
- Surveillance systems can destroy their own operators.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Does surveillance protect or destroy?
- Who controls the watchers?
Another view
Surveillance does not always lead to total collapse.
More from Bruce Sterling
The Chernobyl 'wilderness' - disappearing glaciers - trees growing on dead skyscrapers in Detroit - in the Viridian movement we spend a lot of time and energy …
Permalink to quote #50 The intellectual-property crisis is going into the trenches right now.
Permalink to quote #52 The Bollywood distribution system is so corrupt that they have trouble making money off movies. So they sell shoes that an actress stepped in. If they turned u…
Permalink to quote #49
Related quotes
Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.
George WashingtonGeorge Washington quote #1 When government disappears, it's not as if paradise will take its place. When governments are gone, other interests will take their place.
Lawrence LessigLawrence Lessig quote #1 Politics is a substitute for violence.
Dick GephardtDick Gephardt quote #1