Not long ago I sat in a classroom at the University of Oklahoma and studied the rise of evil in modern Europe.

Panopticon: The State Is Always Watching You

By M. Scott Carter, The Journal Record

Part of that class included the concept of the Panopticon – an Orwellian-type idea that the state is always watching you. As I studied, I assumed this “all-seeing” idea was simply the whining of those anti-government types.

I was wrong.

This year I saw the Panopticon firsthand with Gov. Brad Henry’s proposal to supplement the state’s budget by automating the enforcement of vehicle insurance. Instead of having a police officer run your vehicle’s tag number when he pulls you over for a traffic offense, the governor’s proposal would automate the process.

And you’d never know it was happening.

A series of video cameras would be placed around the state that would scan an automobile’s tag numbers and cross-reference them against a database of those people who have insurance. If your car wasn’t on the list, you’d get a ticket.

And the state would get the cash.

The governor’s budget estimates the proposal would generate about $95 million in revenue; of course privacy is another issue.

While I understand the need to protect citizens and the desire to make our roads safe, it worries me that every motorist is presumed guilty of an offense until their tag number is cross-referenced against an unknown database on a computer in some distant location.

It also concerns me that the state is always looking over my shoulder; because the state, since it is a human concept and like those humans who developed it, is flawed.

With machines always watching us, how do we know the information is accurate? How do we know the machine hasn’t been tampered with?

And why is the information necessary?

At this point I began to realize the Panopticon isn’t just an idea, but a reality. Whether it’s the little machine that automatically deducts your turnpike toll – while at the same time recording the fact that you were at that exact spot at that exact time – or the idea that the state has dominion over a woman’s eggs, the Panopticon is alive and well in Oklahoma.

Big Brother is here. And he’s living in your house.

Lawmakers are considering ideas to take DNA samples from those simply charged with crimes, while at the same time calling for the elimination of big government. Online merchants watch what you buy and then sell that data to others so they, too, can try to sell you products.

The list goes on and on and on.

For most of us, the right to privacy – the idea that the lives of law-abiding citizens should be private – is a now-defunct concept.

In the future, expect to see more of yourself made available for general public consumption. We’re trading our rights for a false sense of security and the idea that if the state knows everything about us, it will somehow be able to better protect us.

I don’t believe it.

I still believe that government is, and can be, a noble institution.

For more than two centuries our government – while flawed – had served us well and helped make the United States, and this land we call Oklahoma, a vital prosperous place. But the world is changing, and we Oklahomans are rapidly losing our right to privacy because the state is now inside our homes and our vehicles.

The Panopticon is here. And it’s not going away.

Years ago, the cartoonist Walt Kelly eloquently described the idea in just a few simple words, words that ring true decades later: We have met the enemy and he is us.

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