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@@ -17,8 +17,6 @@ may demonstrate the way in which a state can organise surveillance against its own people and the implications it has for those in power and those under their authority. -# Surveillance in powerful systems - A government may get involved in the regular surveillance of its citizens for many reasons. The interception of communications are readily visible (inelegant) including the interception of mail in the @@ -30,8 +28,6 @@ claims cannot be trusted. Those who wish to monitor modern electronic communications may suggest that such an operation exists in the interest of the safety of the public, by stopping crime and terrorism. -# The prevalence of the Stasi - Much of the Stasi's strength came from its numbers. The Stasi was able to infiltrate every facet of the East German society to an astounding extent. The reputation of the Stasi is well deserved from the power to @@ -40,8 +36,6 @@ plant the seeds of doubt within the population. The methods of the Stasi are often described as inducing fear in citizens. -# Surveillance and control - The tools of surveillance served the state, and in return the state served the Stasi. Just as to us, surveillance agencies and government may appear separate, in East Germany they were demonstrably not. There @@ -77,15 +71,46 @@ prevalence of sophisticated devices with microphones and cameras, which the Stasi went to great lengths to plant in private places, but that we carry around with us as granted. -# The end and legacy of the Stasi - The Stasi came to an unexpected end. Following the declining interest of the previously heavily invested Soviet Union in maintaining a powerful regime in East Germany, and the later fall of the Berlin Wall -as part of "The Peacful Revolution" in 1989, the Stasi fell with the -regime it worked under. - -# Conclusions +as part of "The Peaceful Revolution" in 1989, the Stasi fell with the +regime it worked under. The Stasi and the state enjoyed a symbiotic +relationship, serving each others needs. Towards the end of the end of +the GDR, the Stasi struggled to maintain its grip on the people. In +turn the GDR began seeing an increase in pro-democracy sentiment and +mobilisation. Arguably the tightly knit relationship between the Stasi +and the state sent the system into a downwards spiral at the end. Here +we may be able to gather that in modern authoritarian systems, +surveillance is not only beneficial to, but essential for those in +power. Those who desire to rule authoritatively over people in modern +states with high population cities and technology such as printers, +typewriters, radio, and television which can be used to turn the +people against authorities need surveillance in order to ensure these +very things become non existent. + +In this the Stasi was somewhat successful. Although the regulation of +items such as typewriters or printing equipent were highly regulated, +particularly before the beggining of the end for the Stasi, the Stasi +was not able to prevent a rather powerful weapon used by the western +powers. Although the state engaged in heavy censorship of materials +such as books, and the state control of radio, television, and print +media, people were still able to receive western broadcasting on their +radio and television sets. Despite the illegality of this, the +authorities were unwilling or unable to thoroughly police this and +people were able to see broadcasting such as news from the outside +world, breaking down the highly censored walls of the GDR, and +allowing in outside knowledge. + +Arguably, this is where the Stasi could have done more work to further +exert and maintain control over the people. The ability of people to +listen to outside broadcasting afforded great influence to West +Germany and NATO in East German borders. Censorship can thusly be +viewed as a very powerful tool of authoritarianism, and the lack of +limitation by the Stasi on what people were watching and listening to +may have disintegrated the other tools of propaganda and +disinformation that the authorities were naturally trying to +simultaneously leverage. In a sense the reality of the Stasi and the ways in which it impacted the lives of people in East Germany present us with an opportunity to @@ -106,7 +131,7 @@ no longer exists and we are able to understand it in way that we may not be able to with current events. Thus the opportunity information about the Stasi provides is a very valuable one, given the clear view and judgement we are able to have on it and thus our potential to -learn more from it than other examples of survaillance. +learn more from it than other examples of surveillance. <-- horrible ending |