A VOYEUR'S WET DREAM.

The eye-in-the-sky is watching. Your life is being scrutinized, analyzed. Not by some shadowy government overseer, but rather the entertainment industry and those drones they call your peers. The gods of advertisement tempt you with siren songs of Coor's and weed, bad music and conformity through mock rebellion. Dissenters are trampled underfoot by the drug-addled human herd; that mass which swarms to the clarion call of consumerism like flies drawn to warm feces. They laugh and they drink and they stumble while others--equally jejune and matched in ineptitude--live the vanilla freak show vicariously from the comfort of an armchair.
Oh yes, the cameras are everywhere. Waiting for you to fuck up.
Waiting to show the world your pretentiousness; waiting to allow the insipid billions to reward your empty existence with their undying adulation.

We live in the age of technology, and in particular, the age of video.
Cameras are no longer the cumbersome and awkward burdens they once were.
Now any fool with a pittance to spend can purchase a camera with impressive zoom capabilities and resolution; one that will fit in his pocket. Even cell phones come standard with still or video camera features. No doubt this fabulous modern technology has enabled unseemly passers-by to visually penetrate countless skirts unnoticed.
The military is understandably invested quite heavily in the surveillance department. While technology already makes available hummingbird-sized, remote-controlled cameras, the goal is to achieve surveillance with the size and scope of a small insect. At the current pace of advancement, this goal should be met in less than a decade.
Police forces have been utilizing "Cop in a Box" programs to great success. Such programs incorporate cameras into trouble spots and can monitor car speeds, red light violations, or street activity in known gang or prostitution areas.
While such tactics have recieved flak from citizens, camera programs have proliferated because they are practical solutions to cities with a lack of police funding and manpower.

As cameras continue to become embedded in everyday life, one might begin to question the future of private life.
Will we one day be living in a Trevor Goodchild-esque society, where the liberal attitude of shared "openess" is pervasive and enforced through unquestioned mass conformity?
In some ways it seems like path is unfolding before our eyes.
The dominating trend of "reality" television has shown that the herd has a significant interest in passively viewing the mundane, tedious dealings of just about anyone or anything. The powers-that-be have profited(and continue to profit) immensely from this trend, to the point where the "reality show" has become the largest genre on television.
This change has carried over to the internet, where millions of users now interact with eachother over sites like MySpace and YouTube. Now anyone can feel important by sharing pathetic videos of himself with numerous other losers. Everyone is a celebrity in the online arena of egalitarian media. All it takes is a camera and time to kill.

Likewise, an entire lifetime can be pissed away just watching other people, vicariously "living," floating about in the sea of internet flotsam and jetsom.
The virtual addict has an ever-expanding plethora of mental and physical masturbatory material at his disposal, in high definition and surround sound.

Truly, this is a wonderful time to be a voyeur.