Most of us, of a certain age, were asked at some point in high school English to read George Orwell's novel 1984.

For those who haven't read the book, it is a very dystopian view of the future written by George Orwell in 1948 and published in 1949.

article continues below

The story is set in 1984 England which, in the book, is Airstrip One and a province in the super-state of Oceania.

The world is in a state of perpetual war between the major super-states and the ongoing crisis has allowed the government to curtail civil liberties.

It is a cautionary tale.

As a consequence of war, the population is held in a constant state of fear and the government has set up an omnipresent surveillance system which allows it to control even what its citizen's think.

Under the dictates of Ingsoc, or English Socialism, the privileged Inner Party elite control and manipulate the public.

They persecute individualism, spy on their own citizens and have declared independent thinking a thoughtcrime.

It is the world in which Big Brother is watching you.

For the younger generation, it is very akin to the world portrayed in the graphic novel V for Vendetta, but without the graphic violence. It is the world of totalitarianism.

It is the world where those who think wrong or question their leaders are jailed and executed.

When Orwell wrote 1984, Great Britain had just emerged from a bloody and costly war. Many felt Hitler wanted to create a totalitarian regime. It was the threat of the day.

And the emergence of such a regime under Stalin in communist Russia scared the West.

Indeed, the threat of Stalinism still drives much of the Republican agenda south of the border.

However, totalitarianism isn't just the purview of socialists or communists.

It is also found in right wing governments, in dictatorships, and many countries around the world.

In Canada, we are appalled when we hear stories of dissidents being jailed for the simple act of speaking out. Yet this routinely happens in the Middle East, in South America and even in European countries.

But not in Canada, we tell ourselves. Not in the true north, strong and free.

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" is a quote attributed to Thomas Jefferson.

He was deeply aware of government's capacity for paranoia and constructed a constitution with checks and balances intended to prevent government from intruding unnecessarily into the lives of its citizens.

But Jefferson never anticipated the modern age, with video cameras, cell phones, internet searches and other methods for surveilling the public.

Nor did he envision a world where travel between continents is a matter of hours and not weeks, and global communication allows news to spread before one has had time to think.

He did not envision the powers now available to government. And it would seem the powers are moving us inexorably towards a world in which Big Brother IS watching you.

We tell ourselves our civil liberties are sacrosanct but we have a government which warns us about terrorists, scares us into believing they are knocking at our doors and then responds by introducing Bill C-51.

We have government surveillance of law abiding Canadian citizens.

We have a prime minister who has described individuals who oppose or protest the Northern Gateway pipeline as eco-terrorists.

We have been told CSIS and the RCMP has these groups under surveillance and the justification is that it is for their own good to ensure they are not radicalized or infiltrated.

In a world where every conversation and all of our movements can be brought under surveillance, freedom is significantly curtailed.

Our civil liberties are diminished.

And then Harper has the audacity to say:

"A re-elected Conservative government will designate travel to places that are ground zero for terrorist activity a criminal offence.

"We are talking about the most dangerous places on Earth where governance is non-existent and violence is wide spread and brutal.

"There are very few legitimate reasons to go to places like these and those who go without such legitimate reasons will face the full force of the law...

"First of all, let's be clear, there is absolutely no right in this country to travel to an area under the government of terrorists.

"That is not a human right...

"There are few legitimate reasons. There will be exceptions in the law for those legitimate reasons.

"I don't think people that have legitimate reasons will have difficulty showing those, but we know what other people are doing there.

"This is something that we have to nip in the bud before terrorists... trained terrorists... return to this country."

Yes, Big Brother isn't able to tell you what to think - yet - but he certainly wants to tell you where you can go.