OurFrailSociety

Where is our society moving towards? Now that it is possible to close down access to random websites, claiming that the actual reasoning for such an action is due to copyright infringement. I experienced this just a couple of days ago, when my ISP chose to make certain changes in their DNS server setup making it (partly) impossible to access a page called thepiratebay.org.

Of course this could be circumvented by just changing the DNS server settings on my computer to use an alternate DNS server like the ones that OpenDNS have made available, but this might only be an option for more experienced users. People who solely use computers to search the internet for information might actually experience this as cencurship.

But what is it next time? Websites that post radical opinions? Websites or services that contain content that contradicts the political direction that the current government is pointing out? We've seen this in China, but we, here in the democratic parts of western europe, are way beyond such dictatorial means of censorship, right?

And what about the power of the police? Here in Denmark the police has created body search zones within the city of Copenhagen. Official reason is the increasing amount of violence, but there seems to be no officially defined  end date for this parade of dominance.

I'm not saying that I would prefer a more violent society, I don't say that we should not have a strong police force who are able to work efficiently, but when the only argument for body search zones is that it is an efficient tool that the police can use, I find it barrier towards police raids and people disappearing, which might turn out as very efficient tools for certain missions, I find the barrier between our current society and a police state very thin.

Combined with the tolerance of more and more surveilance cameras in the public domain, although it is clearly prohibited by law, I find that there is a tendency towards a more police dominated society where civil rights are transgressed further and further.

If we just stand by watching where will this end?