SURVEILLANCE

As a work of architecture, the panopticon allows a guard to observe occupants without the occupants knowing if they are being observed or not. Thus, they must assume that they are always under observation, constantly controlling their own behavior. As a metaphor, it is used to characterized modern societies with a high level of surveillance. The National Security Agency and other governmental agencies can access, without a warrant, your emails, texts, phone calls, social media information, and other intel that citizens assume to be private (Tracy). While we haven’t quite reached panopticon levels of surveillance—perhaps only because citizens aren’t aware of the United States’ surveillance measures—it is clear that we could be headed in that direction. The president just passed a bill that allows broadband companies to use customers’ “‘sensitive’ data—including browsing history, geolocation and financial and medical information—to create targeted advertisements” (Neidig). America is becoming a panoptic society like that of V for Vendetta with the government’s unlimited, warrantless surveillance.

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Surveillance is employed throughout the novel in the name of public safety. In the opening sequence of the comic we see a security camera trained on citizens, with a sign that reads: “FOR YOUR PROTECTION” (Lloyd & Moore 9). The real reason for all the spying is to monitor and control citizens and to seek out and destroy dissenters. The Norsefire government even devotes two branches to surveillance: The Eye for video and The Ear for audio. Throughout the novel, the government uses surveillance technology to further strip its citizens of their personal freedoms. It is a truly panoptic society because the government can watch its citizens at all times without the citizens’ knowledge or consent. This panoptic gaze restricts the citizens’ speech and actions through psychological rather than physical force. Fear is the strongest motivator of people’s behavior. When V destroys The Eye and Ear at the beginning of book three, we see the effects that constant surveillance has on the citizens in keeping them in line. A little girl goes up to one of the dead surveillance cameras, whispers “bollocks,” and then physically recoils in fear of reprimand (Lloyd & Moore 188). When nothing happens, she shouts “bollocks” again and again as she spray paints the word on the sidewalk. The sort of self-censorship that existed up until this point of the novel kept people from saying or doing what they wanted out of fear. Ultimately, Norsefire’s weakness is the surveillance it has used to control its citizens for years, as V turns this surveillance inward and uses it to destroy them.

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Government surveillance is dangerous because it gives the watchers an unseen advantage over the watched, and when the watchers gain enough information, they can use it to create dangerous, all-powerful governments like the one in V for Vendetta.