THE DARK AGES ARE BACK; The Atlantic, April 30, 2025

Alan Lightman, The Atlantic ; THE DARK AGES ARE BACK: Americans must insist on academic freedom, or risk losing what makes our nation great.

"The surrender of academic freedom in America and, in fact, freedom of all kinds may happen gradually, little by little. First with the disproportionate power of money and the wealthy who have it, then with attacks on the free press, the control of information, the weakening of checks and balances, the suppression of dissent, the surveillance of the population, and finally the normalization of repression. In George Orwell’s novel 1984, a superstate called Oceania is ruled by a dictator called Big Brother, who is supported by his personality cult and the Thought Police. The protagonist of the novel, Winston Smith, works for the state, at the Ministry of Truth, but he secretly hates the ruling regime. He joins what he thinks is a resistance group called the Brotherhood but which turns out to be part of the state apparatus. Smith is then arrested and subjected to months of brainwashing. Eventually, he is released and comes to believe that he loves Big Brother after all. This is what happens when darkness replaces light, when the freedom to think, dream, and invent is squashed. We cannot let that happen to us in America."

J.K. Rowling Roasts Sarah Huckabee Sanders With George Orwell ‘1984’ Quote; Huff Post, November 9, 2018

Lee Moran, Huff Post; J.K. Rowling Roasts Sarah Huckabee Sanders With George Orwell ‘1984’ Quote

"“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth,” Rowling wrote, referencing Orwell’s tale about a society controlled by a lurking totalitarian dictator."

With Closed-Circuit TV, Satellites And Phones, Millions Of Cameras Are Watching; Fresh Air, NPR, February 8, 2018

Terry Gross, Fresh Air, NPR; With Closed-Circuit TV, Satellites And Phones, Millions Of Cameras Are Watching

""Journalist Robert Draper writes in National Geographic that the proliferation of cameras focused on the public has led "to the point where we're expecting to be voyeur and exhibitionist 24/7."

"TERRY GROSS, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. My guest Robert Draper says one of the greatest threats to our democracy is gerrymandering, in which the party in power in a state redraws the map of election districts to give the advantage to that party's candidates. Since districts are redrawn only every 10 years following the census, gerrymandering can almost guarantee that the majority party will stay in power. There are a couple of gerrymandering cases currently before the Supreme Court. Draper has reported on gerrymandering, and we'll talk about that a little later.

First, we're going to talk about his new article "They Are Watching You - And Everything Else On The Planet" published in this month's National Geographic. It's about state-of-the-art surveillance from closed-circuit TV to drones and satellites and the questions these surveillance technologies raise about privacy. As part of his research, he spent time in surveillance control rooms in London. And he went to a tech company in San Francisco whose mission is to image the entire Earth every day. Draper is a contributing writer for National Geographic and a writer at large for The New York Times Magazine.

Robert Draper, welcome back to FRESH AIR. So let's start with surveillance. Why did you choose England as the place to report on surveillance?"