The Road to Big Big Brother: One Man's Struggle against the Surveillance Society [Hardcover]

Ross Clark (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 25, 2009

In this entertaining and highly revealing account of his attempt to dodge Britain's 4.2 million CCTV cameras and other forms of surveillance, Ross Clark lays bare the astonishing amount of personal data which is hoarded by the state and by commercial organizations, and asks whom should we fear most: the government agencies who are spying on us - or the criminals who seem to prosper in the swirling fog of excessive data-collection.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Encounter Books; 1 edition (April 25, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594032483
• ISBN-13: 978-1594032486
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,407,076 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wake up!, May 3, 2009

By 

L.A. Little - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Road to Big Big Brother: One Man's Struggle against the Surveillance Society (Hardcover)

So many times the obvious contradictions that surround us go unnoticed. In our high-tech society, one such contradiction is the apparent acceptance by the general public in the increasingly pervasive use of electronic surveillance to examine their every action. Author Ross Clark, in his book The Road To Big Brother - One Man's Struggle Against the Surveillance Society, ponders this willingness of the public to be spied upon and concludes that so few apparently are aware of just how extensive the data collection is. As a result, Clark ends up taking us on a journey in a somewhat sarcastic manner to observe such spying. From the talking lamp post to the inability to move around Britain via automobile without having your picture taken, Big Brother is everywhere. But who's really watching and what happens to all that collected data? The real contradiction ends up being the rather uselessness of the surveillance exercise itself.

This 130 page manuscript provides a rather intriguing look into just how much electronic data gathering occurs. While the book centers primarily on surveillance in England, some examples are United States specific. Independent of where it occurs, Clark keeps asking why and what for. His pointed question regarding the real value of such excessive data collection rings true when you consider that the more data collected simply means the more errors present within that data set. And how might this error laden data be used - to deny one of a job or credit or even worse? Throughout the book, Clark drives home the reoccurring themes that the more data collected, the more useless the data and that irregardless of its usefulness, the authorities cannot hide their apparent zeal to collect more. Somewhere lost in that zeal is the continued debasement of your civil liberties.

All in all, The Road to Big Brother is an interesting and thought provoking read on the subject of surveillance in our societies - a practice that has become quite fashionable and pervasive despite the questionable benefits obtained. It's 1984 in the 21st century and one mans attempt to ask us why? Why should we allow this and what benefit does it really provide?

Personally I found the book quite interesting yet frustrating - frustrating because it reminds me even more that, despite the guarantees of the Bill of Rights that no person should be deprived of life, liberty, or property without the due process of law, we see those rights continually encroached almost daily by a government intent on monitoring our every move. For that reason, I thank Clark for doing his part to raise the awareness in both Britain and now the United States.

L.A. Little, Reviewer for bookpleasures and TA Today

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An essay on the death of our FREEDOM and PRIVACY, July 26, 2009

By 

ThorBjorn "Norseman" (Minnesota) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Road to Big Big Brother: One Man's Struggle against the Surveillance Society (Hardcover)

A British journalist reveals his assessment of the UK's much vaunted public surveillance systems. Although much of the book focuses on technology and public policies already in place in Britain, this book also contains references to similar programs that exist in the United States. The usual lame excuse for establishing these "all-seeing eyes", is to "keep you safe". If only you will be a good and proper sheep, and just let "Big Brother" watch over you! Its all for "the common good"!

Britain, a nation that has contributed such a disproportionately large cultural influence on the modern world, for such a small nation, should really be the last to submit to such public nonsense. After all, when we consider that Britain has given us such visionary literary figures as Anthony Burgess, George Orwell, Thomas More, and Aldous Huxley, one would think that the British people would now better. Alas, only a handful of very rare people even bother to read quality literature. The visions these four authors described, IS COMING TRUE. All of these men wrote dystopian tales of all-powerful states that wield absolute power and control over the citizenry.

George Orwell figures most prominently here, in regard to "1984", the story of a man daring to indulge in secret laiasons with a woman. However, they live under the tyranny of a massive, totalitarian police-state, a malevolent bureacracy that keeps its subjects in line by way of an all-pervasive sytem of surveillance. A system symbolized by an enigmatic "leader", known only as "Big Brother".

As of this writing, in Minnesota, "representative" Jim Oberstar thinks it would be just wonderful to have all motor-vehicles installed with GPS technology, so that the government can "tax your mileage" and "use of public roads". Some sheep might actually believe this, I don't. Of course, some of us realize that this policy really is not so much about "taxing road use", as having absolute surveillance on the movement of citizens.

Do not be fooled.

The self-styled "elitists" who occupy our enormous government bureacracies, DO NOT have YOUR best interests in mind. Everything they do is based soley upon what suits THEIR INTERESTS. Its all about THEIR agenda. It is in their best interests to have absolute control over YOU. They think you are SHEEP at best, ANTS at worst.

Do YOU really think your "elected representatives" represent you? As a random citizen, try to arrange a meeting with one of these people, see if you get so much as a form-letter in response to your inquiry. See if thier secretary even remebers speaking to you over the telephone the next day.

Somewhere, Western culture has gravely lost its way. One of the very fundamental themes which the American Founding Fathers had in mind, was that government is the PUBLIC SERVANT of the CITIZENS. The government HAS TO DO WHAT WE SAY, they WORK FOR US.

Have we all forgotten this?

The primary point, is that if you complacently allow these arrogant, narcissistic, psychopathic, public CON-ARTISTS (politicians) to establish this de facto surveillance police-state, YOU WILL NO LONGER BE FREE.

We DO NOT NEED THIS!

The author of this book has emphasized the gross incompetance and random tyranny that just such a surveillance-state WILL subject you to.

5 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Leviathan: An Incompetent and Power Obsessed Master, May 10, 2009

By 

Bernard Chapin "Ora Et Labora!" (CHICAGO! USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Road to Big Big Brother: One Man's Struggle against the Surveillance Society (Hardcover)

Length:: 7:11 Mins

This book needed to be written and we need to know what's happening in England because it will soon be happening here.