One of the great freedoms of the United States used to be the freedom to be left alone, to do and think and say what you pleased, as long as no others were harmed in the process. Alas, the running theme of America in the 21st century seems to be, is there any aspect of a citizen's life that the government doesn't feel it has the right to intrude in?
Watch, as they "voluntarily" move into your Wii, PlayStation, and XBox:
In the event of an emergency, the state of New York may seize control of your Xbox.
Video games will pause and warnings about imminent danger, severe weather or Amber alerts will appear on the screen, under a new notification system for Xbox, Wii and PlayStation set to go live next year.
"Not all people receive information just through radio and TV, so the idea is to reach them through other avenues," said Dennis Michalski, a spokesman for the state Emergency Management.
The video-game alerts will also be voluntary, Michalski said.
But officials are working with technology companies to devise a non-voluntary version of the alerts, which could push messages to every cellphone and video-game system in the event of a life-threatening situation, Michalski said.
Well, that didn't take long to go from "voluntary" to "non-voluntary", did it? A dozen words later, what is being pitched as the helping hand of government becomes the government forcing you to stop your activities and pay attention to them, and to whatever they feel you need to be told.
Not too Orwellian, not too authoritarian...and of course, this latest hack at our freedom to just be left alone is all in the name of "our own good". The government, again, knowing best what that is for each and every individual citizen...
Soft tyranny, right through your gaming system.
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