1984, London-style

THIS morning, New York Times columnist Roger Cohen weighed in on the pending royal marriage between Prince William and what’s-her-name. (He thinks the royal wedding provides a timely boost to British morale.)

Cohen, a British expatriate who left England some 30 years to live and work in America, opened his piece with this interesting observation:

“LONDON — I left a ramshackle, rumpled and rather gloomy Britain three decades ago and returned recently to the surveillance state. On an average day in London you can expect to be filmed by more than 300 cameras. Eight British cities, including Wigan, have more cameras than Paris. You see them everywhere — and they see you. The omnipresence of Big Brother is scarcely an upper.”

Jeebus. I had no idea surveillance was that thick in the city the Romans called Londinium. It is hard to know whether all of this it is justified (it might be). But if the point of terrorism is to terrorize, haven’t the bad guys won at least a partial victory here?

Just something to chew upon.