Big Brother Is Still With Us

Well, almost 30 years have passed since the year 1984--the time setting of George Orwell's iconic book--he wrote it in 1948, by the way, and just transposed the numbers--so a legend was born.  And few in the world don't know the significance of the year and the term Big Brother (not to be confused with the 'reality show').

Now as we approach 2014, I feel there is no doubt that some form of Big Brother is watching. Subconsciously, I think we all know it, unless we live under a rock or in a secret cave somewhere.  (For my take on this, check out my next book, "When the World Grows Cold"!)  Most of the time, though, we try to keep the thought out of our minds.

Here's a little illustration:  About 2 months ago, my husband bought a kayak at a local sporting goods store, using a nationally-known credit card.  A few weeks later, he went to a local branch of a national hardware chain and bought some cord and a small block and tackle set, so he could rig up a way to store the kayak suspended from our garage ceiling, for the winter.  He thinks he used the same credit card to pay.

That's the only connection between the two purchases, and I was not with him either time--the credit card is in his name.  This morning I got a 'special offer' in my email from Amazon--for a kayak storage hoist!  My husband's name is not on this Amazon account--he doesn't even have one.  How did they put all this together?  Creepy, huh?

We might as well accept the fact that there is no personal privacy now that nearly everyone is carrying some kind of access to the "Worldwide Web" in their pocket.  Hmm--'web' makes me think of spiders--and they give me the creeps, too!   We're probably all walking around with little cursor squares on our heads, persons of interest to someone.

So what happens next?  I don't know.  But I've done some fictional speculation in my book series, "The Peaks at the Edge of the World".  Book 4, When the World Grows Cold, will be released by the end of this month.  And guess where you can check out the entire series?  Amazon.com, of course!  The computers rule...