Op-Docs: ‘Drones for America!’

By Drew Christie

Drones for America!: In this animated satire, a former K.G.B. agent welcomes a future in which Americans live under the watchful eyes of drones.

When I began thinking of this animated Op-Docs video, I had two things in mind. The first was the adoption of drones by the Seattle Police Department. (The program has since been scuttled.) The second was Yevgeny Zamyatin's 1924 novel "We," which was a forerunner to dystopian novels including George Orwell's "1984," Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" and Kurt Vonnegut's "Player Piano."

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"We" is set in a futuristic city that is constructed almost entirely out of glass. This total surveillance state is reminiscent of Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon, a prison designed so that inmates could be watched at all times — without their being able to tell whether they were, at any moment, actually being watched. I suspect domestic drone use will eventually have a similar effect: allowing the state to dominate the public through pervasive eyes in the sky.

How will these machines be regulated? Will they be weaponized? Will the National Rifle Association insist on the right of every American to have a drone to protect his or her family and home? None of this has been decided yet, but American lawmakers are pushing for drones to be in the skies over your head very soon. (Members of the Congressional Unmanned Systems Caucus — also known as the drone caucus — in the House of Representatives have received $8 million in contributions over the last four years from drone manufacturers.) How will flying drones affect the psychology of those living under them?

For clues we can look to Pakistan, where the United States has killed thousands in drone strikes. Some Pakistani children reportedly have trouble studying and have dropped out of school because of the fear of drones buzzing overhead; some adults are afraid to gather publicly or attend weddings and funerals.

We should ban drone use over United States skies outright — or get ready to embrace the city of glass.

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