Wireless Suffocation

The privileged few who reside power over the masses have made it their duty to find new and more efficient ways to rule the land. As a model of a small community the prison system serves as an effective guinea pig for the powerful who wish to obtain rule through the constriction of rights of those who are less fortunate. One of these ideas from the prison system has now made its way into our daily lives, my life in particular. This idea I speak of is the panopticon. The panopticon was a prison built in the 17th century that was centered around the assumption that a “watched” prisoner is more likely to obey the rules than a prisoner who didn't know they were being “watched” . A tower was placed in the center of the cylinder where the cell's were located. The prisoner could not see into but the guards could see out of and into of all the cells at any given time. Thus fear of being watched now could rule the masses. The idea of the panopticon has now found its ally in technology in the form of security cameras.
How this effects me is that I now work for a retail chain who had installed cameras in the store in order to prevent theft. Perfectly fine with me because even though I have many shortcomings being a thief isn't one of them. What I did find strange was that the cameras in the store were not faced towards the merchandise nor other areas in the store where a customer would steal. In fact, the cameras were only face towards the employees. But even this did not bother me. What I found the most devious was that months later corporate headquarters had a technician come out and install a feed from the store's cameras to a loss prevention station in another state that could be watch at any given time. There has been no case where this has become a deterrent of theft in stores. It is becoming evident to me that this feed was not for the problem of theft but more for the reason to gain leverage over its employees by making them fear that they are being watched. Like inmates in the prison system employees now have lost individual identity because they no longer feel as though they are a free people.
Conformity in the workplace is now the only way, and just as prisoners would perpetuate fear among themselves so have the salesman. Even I have said to another employee, “ Be careful what you do in the store because they are watching.” I now look back and realize what a tool I have become. Have we as a society become so weak that we can no longer distinguish what is an imposition on our rights and what is not? Security cameras are a breach of the innocent's right to live as a free citizen whether they are on the job or not, and a person in another state should not have the right to watch nor the right pass judgment of a person they view on a security feed unless an actual crime has taken place.
James Battle