2011-07-17 "Privacy is vital to securing freedom from ‘Big Brother’" by Arthur I. Cyr

Arthur I. Cyr is Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
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‘Big Brother Is Watching You’’ was the pervasive punchline in British writer George Orwell’s classic novel “1984.”
Now we know Big Brother is listening too.
Revelations that Rupert Murdoch’s News International Corp. for years has conducted massive hacking into British cellphone information is truly shocking. Alleged targets include cellphones of a murdered young girl and relatives of soldiers killed in action. Britain’s political parties have united in Parliament, an unusual move, to condemn the company.
The scandal includes allegations of police payoffs. An initial police investigation concluded the snooping was a renegade incident targeting only a few individuals.
Murdoch’s political influence in Britain has been enormous. Politicians across the spectrum fear his power to embarrass or endorse, and have assiduously courted his favor.
Orwell, one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, was a committed socialist. Unlike many on the left, however, he had personal involvement with working people, because he was one. He stressed egalitarianism, while warning about the dangers of concentrated power in government as well as corporations.
The Murdoch snooping scandal is particularly grotesque, and may bring down that media empire. However, guarding individual freedom, including privacy, from intrusive power structures inevitably is a challenge.
An open economy under the rule of law helps limit abuse. Modern Britain has never had dictatorship, and the effects of Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s “Big Bang” deregulation of the economy were important in facilitating freedom. Her heavy-handed style earned her the sobriquet “Big Sister,’’ but the reforms were crucial to Britain’s economic recovery and reassertion of international influence starting in the 1980s.
A similar process unfolded in the U.S., beginning in the Carter administration and carried much further by the Reagan administration. However, the financial crises of the past decade overshadow the durable beneficial consequences of this market freedom.
In our fascinating, fantastic global information revolution, institutions committed to following the law and protecting personal privacy, not just profits and power, deserve our support. Murdoch and crew deserve condemnation and prosecution.
Above all, remember: Big Brother is not watching you.
Not yet.
But he’d like to.