Orwell's limited mind

In an article about the Texas transportation department photographing random cars' license plates on certain stretches of highway and then mailing the car owners surveys:

"This is more than Orwell ever imagined," he said.

A quote from the director of the Texas Civil Rights Project.

Things like this drive me nuts. I'm as concerned about the erosion of civil liberties in this country as just about anyone. I worry about the effect of the general lack of privacy you can carve out of the information and electronic age. But anyone who's trying to fight the collection of data by government agencies should at least try to make rational arguments, rather than coming off as a kook who doesn't know what he's referencing.

Orwell envisioned a future where the rulers had a two-way link into every home. Where the only place you could be sure of privacy was inside your own head, with silent thoughts. A future where the government not only watched over the populace, but controlled all their access to any kind of information, and where accounts of the past were routinely re-written to reflect the political whims of the present.

I don't think photographing license plates with hidden cameras is more totalitarian than Big Brother.