Two great quotations in Ken MacLeod’s latest post on Orwell and the surveillance state:
From Kirstie Ball: “the standard sociological definition of surveillance coincides with the standard organization theory definition of management.”
From Teresa Neilsen Hayden (about Photoshop): “The tools of dictators! In the hands of the people!”
I always thought Tolkien was oddly prophetic with the “silent watchers filled with malice” in Lord of the Rings. I think of those every time I notice these gargoyles silently perched by a supermarket or road stop.
Steve Mann came up with the term Sousveillance to describe people watching Big Brother.
I really love that first quote. It’s awkward–at best–to think of management as anything other than a personal quality regarding personal affairs. Once you broaden management to reference controlling/supervising other persons, management starts to look like parenting.