It's true that the idea of 'someone is watching you' is very old and a well-tested method of social control. The religious angle may be why so many people are receptive to mass surveillance today. But not everyone is religious, and those that are rarely live with a true, 24/7 feeling of dread and fear that someone is actually watching. The fear of consequences is very distant, and there is often forgiveness for small infractions. That fear becomes very different when you can put a face and a name to the people watching you, and you know they can affect your life in very real and immediate ways. This is the preconditioning that starts with childhood surveillance.

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kelseyfrog 6 hours ago | parent [-]

I've spoken to many of the deconverted who where genuinely afraid of committing real and mental sins as a direct condition of omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence. Have you not met someone like this?

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thin_carapace 3 hours ago | parent [-]

are u saying that people shouldn't be afraid of the consequences of behaving improperly ?

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kelseyfrog 2 hours ago | parent [-]

I'm saying, in response to "The fear of consequences is very distant, and there is often forgiveness for small infractions," that people do have a fear of misbehaving and a belief in an omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent god is a critical component of a 'feeling that someone is always watching' resulting in that fear and subsequent avoidance.

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thin_carapace 2 hours ago | parent [-]

certainly proponents of surveillance capitalism would argue that the brain must percieve a social slight in the same way it percieves a slight against god. i can imagine some of these types whispering morpheus quotes to themselves in bed. "the need to be observed and understood was once satisfied by god ..."

	▲	kelseyfrog an hour ago \| parent [-]
		I was under the impression that proponents of surveillance capitalism wish to protect their private property. Must it be more complicated than that?