Yesterday I posted that generally we can trust technology. After finishing "Riders on the Storm" by John Densmore I picked up "On Tyranny" by Timothy Snyder and it has pointed out a couple of instances where technology is possibly not to be trusted.
The book is small , 128 pages and large, easy to read print and has 20 lessons on tyranny in the last two centuries culminating in our current situation, and what YOU should do to combat this and defend freedoms. It is an absorbing, informative read, highlighting a lot of things that you may have missed, assumed were OK and the like.
One if the the points was electronic voting, machines can be manipulated, so the only safe way of voting is on paper slips that can be checked and recounted, although we know even that can be manipulated.
It mentions how easy it is to ignore when others are being mistreated , especially by authoritarians.
There are also example books of how authoritarian groups can subvert nations with the implicit approval of the silent majority , namely George Orwell's "1984" and JK Rowling's "Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows" . "1984" and Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" highlight the power of destroying books and relying on screens and billboards and an ever decreasing number of controlled words.
I will probably finish this book today but it really should be in everyone's library , and I do worry about people who say they don't read or don't like books.
We are in worrying times and one of the problems is that we laugh at our political leaders rather than taking them to task, so I think given the rise of the acceptability of racism in both the UK and USA thanks to their governments we will go with the excellent "Ich Bin Ein Auslander" by Pop Will Eat Itself.
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