Noise, Mosquitoes, and Mild Totalitarianism

From the Globe and Mail:





"Matsumi Suzuki is a former employee at the National Research Institute of Police Science, where he made award-winning advances in the field of voiceprints. One of his proudest achievements was the development of a synthetic mosquito noise that is inaudible to Japan’s over-60s, but supposedly discourages teenagers from ‘congregating in parks at midnight.’ ”





Politically speaking, as a liberal, how should I view this?



People should be free to congregate in public places but, even public places have curfews. People should also be free to enjoy silence at midnight, even if they choose to live next to a park.




I think what is most scary about this is not that teenagers are being kept from loitering. Only the most leather-jacketed of rebels would think that's something worth fighting for. People are quite accepting of police making the occasional rounds and kicking out the kids. The most frightening thing: the effectiveness of the measure. Using sound to drive the kids out is 100% effective, unless its a gang of deaf kids. Police get lax, tolerant, outrun, fat, and couldn't be bothered. But using sound to disperse a crowd will not fail.





This also mirrors the truly frightening aspect of A Clockwork Orange that was unfortunately missed by the author himself. No one cares if young Alex accepted his imposed morality; which served as the basis of Burgess's centrally-themed social commentary. If someone is a socio-path; why would we really want him to express his freedom? It's like asking to be punched in the stomache. Better non-autonomous morality than none at all. We value most that the key laws of a state are followed; that it is followed autonomously is necessary in the main but not for each and every person. The effectiveness of Alex's rehabilitation; the completeness with which it is carried out is what is frightening. It is frightening because it works so well. If it only worked 20% of the time with a high chance of relapse; people wouldn't have been so fussed.

A completely effective behavioral altering measure hints at a risk to the freedom of the average citizen. These measures could be used against us; and resistance would be futile. That's dystopic. And, I'm not suprised its a Japanese invention. They are just so good at this type of stuff.

Possible equation:

Effectiveness of Measure + Capability of that Measure being used on the Avg. citizen + Likelihood of that Measure being used on an Avg. citizen = Degree of Totalitarianesque Fear when we read news snippet about the Measure being introduced in Japan on its incredibly socially-compliant citizenry