This article scares me. It reminds me not only of the East German Stasi, but also of the Blockwarts, (neighborhood watch dogs usually in brown shirts) during the Third Reich, my mother told me about.
"It was a time when everyone was scared, no one would trust anybody, and in the night they would come and take people out of their houses ... "
One of my experiences in East Germany also came to my mind: On one of my few visits to East Berlin. I was not very far from the wall and I asked a couple in my age if and were there is a place to go dancing that evening. We talked for a bit and the guy goes behind a house to take a leak. All in a sudden a car drives up three men jump out one running behind the house to check what is happening there.
They examined our papers and let us go after a while. I never forget the poor couple, they were very disturbed by the fact that this incident would end up in their file and that they shouldn't have been so close to the wall and that they should not have contacted/spoken with someone from the West ...
Scary stuff and food for thought for our 'Transparent Society' theme this Friday at the Futurist Salon.
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