The idea of having Big Brother monitor our life and activities, as forecast in George Orwell's great book 1984, is not acceptable in America. Unfortunately, the liberals, who always seek control over how we live our lives and how we spend our money, are using terrorists, criminals, illegal aliens, welfare cheats, and deadbeat dads as excuses to impose oppressive government surveillance over our private lives. Modern technology has made it possible to build a file on every American, and to record and track our comings and goings. Computers can now collect and store immense databases, with detailed records about individual Americans' health status and treatment, job status and applications, automobiles and driving, financial transactions, credit, banking, school and college performance, and travels within and without the country. In the novel 1984, an omnipresent Big Brother watched every citizen at home and work from a giant television screen.
Databases can now accomplish the same surveillance and tracking much more efficiently.
In the novel 1984, Big Brother was able to read the individual's secret diary hidden in his home. The Clinton Administration and the FBI are right now demanding the right to read our e-mail and computer files, listen in on our phone conversations, and track the whereabouts of our cell phone calls. These databases convey enormous power to whoever controls them. In government hands, they are the power to control our very life, our health care, our access to a job, our financial transactions, and our entry to school and college. In private hands, these databases are immensely profitable to the companies that own them and market them for commercial purposes.