cell phones – Engaging Peace

Little Sister says, “Now is the time to read or reread George Orwell’s 1984.” It is available online.

1984 is a disturbing portrayal of perpetual war, massive propaganda, government control of the media, and ubiquitous surveillance. Published in 1949, it is a chilling nightmare of a novel foretelling a future wherein people live in constant fear of Big Brother, who can monitor their every behavior from their own televisions.

Consider this information and decide for yourself whether that future is now.

The novel and the film based on it are horrifying, but–despite Orwell’s fertile and perhaps diabolical imagination–he failed to envision the wonders of technology with which Little Big Brother has flooded our communities, devices with the ultimate potential to track all our activities all the time.

For example, an updated version of 1984 would include:

license plate scanners that can track the movements of anyone who goes anywhere by car
cell phones
smart phones
emails
electronic online shopping that allows those with a credit card to buy devices that enable them to play at being spies

Maybe what we need in 2014 is a less dystopian novel, 2014, in which Winston Smith, the hero of 1984, pulls together the shreds of democracy and faces down Big Brother. At his back he has:

The whistle-blowers, such as Edward Snowden
The Electronic Frontiers Foundation
The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union)
And possibly some Congressional hearings in which a sufficient number of the power elite put the brakes on the National Security Agency (NSA) and other parts of our shadow government

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OWj1ZGn4uM

The desire for control of natural resources has been at the root of many wars—including imperialist wars in the Middle East and the global south.

How many Americans know that not just their cell phones but bombs and other deadly weapons use coltan extracted from mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)? Or that the past three years of deadly fighting in the DRC have resulted in the loss of three million lives?

And what have the militia been fighting each other for? Control of the rich mineral resources in DRC:

Richness that leaves most inhabitants in dire poverty
Riches in the form of gold on wrists and around necks
Riches in the form of weapons containing coltan
Riches made possible by the labor of women and children who work—and often die—in the mines.

As you think ahead to holiday giving, please don’t buy “dirty gold.”

To learn more about what makes coltan mining bloody, watch the video above. To learn more about makes gold “dirty,” watch this video.

Even if you do not want to confront the inhumane mining processes that produce the gold for our jewelry and the coltan in our electronic devices and bombs, please learn more about the No Dirty Gold campaign and the Golden Rules for Responsible Mining (this link opens a pdf).

Surely there must be ways for people to pursue gift-giving and happiness without wasting countless lives in the process.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

1984–trumped

Don’t buy “dirty gold”