360 Degrees: Banksy and CCTV

First off, in order to understand this image, we must know that CCTV stands for Close Circuit Television which is a type of "television" that transmits signals to a specific place. CCTV is mainly used for surveillance in public places that need monitoring, such as schools and banks. The increased use of surveillance cameras in public areas all over the the U.S. is a major problem because it shows the type of relationship that the citizens of this country have with our government. By initiating these cameras, we are no longer allowed our privacy that has played such a major role in in the creation of our country. Being under constant surveillance takes away that Liberty and freedom that the citizens of this country thought they had. Being under constant surveillance takes away the trust between the government and the its subjects and we all know what happens to countries like this. Without trust and liberty, a nation is bound to collapse and wither away, especially a nation like ours that was specifically built off of trust. 

It is important to note how the whole slogan of this picture was taken from our pledge of allegiance to this country and transformed into a slogan that seems to capture people's attitude about our country. I mean, before "One Nation Under God" used to be motto, but whatever happened to that? Have we all lost our trust and belief in God? Maybe CCTV and technology in general has become so advanced because of us that it has sort of replaced the notion of omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience that God used to stand for. Maybe CCTV (or technology in general) is the "God" of our time. 

On the other hand, maybe I am thinking way to pessimistically about this photograph. I mean, is it such a bad thing to be under constant surveillance? Can there actually be an upside to this notion of losing our liberty? Maybe by having the government and other agencies watching our every move we are actually better off. I mean if you really think about it, having surveillance cameras does a lot of good. For one thing, if there is a crime happening, there is full record of it and the person committing the crime would suffer for it and therefore justice would be served. I'd like to believe that by having these cameras, we have the opportunity to not only learn from our mistakes, but from others as well. 

Obviously, there are many ways of looking at this image. By looking at and understanding all of these different angles that the photograph implies one can draw a very valid conclusion about the photograph; that it represents our contemporary philosophy. This philosophy is mainly based off the fact that we are so powerful and advanced technologically, but internally, we are just untrustworthy and "meaningless" creatures.