In early 1939, during the run-up to war with Germany, the British propaganda ministry created these posters – “Keep Calm and Carry On” – in order to reassure the people, and remind them that all would be okay, no matter how dire the circumstances, if only they would not fall into fear and paranoia.
While very few of these posters ever made it into circulation for the British people to see, keep calm they did. On August 24, 1940 during the bombing of London by the German Luftwaffe, journalist Edward R. Murrow was in Trafalgar Square with his microphone.
In the streets, there is no terror, no panic. Murrow describes a man stopping in front of him to light a cigarette, walking casually as others move quietly at a quicker pace.
…
A lot has changed since those days.
In the interest of “working together for a safer London,” the Metropolitan Police have launched a new counter-terrorism hotline and accompanying media campaign, which encourages calling the cops over anything “suspicious.”
London has been under video surveillance for years, and the Orwellian overtones haven’t been lost on very many. But this new campaign takes the watchful eye to a new level. Big Brother is so 1984… in 2009, we all just spy on each other!
The similar look, and yet starkly contrasted nature, of these two images strikes me.
The two other images at the Metro police site are worth examining. The first seems to imply that good citizens should rummage through one another’s garbage bin looking for incriminating evidence, and the other gives the impression that anyone looking at London’s ubiquitous CCTV cameras is a terrorist bomber.
If something legitimately suspicious is seen, I don’t think the average person needs reminding that such a thing should be reported (and this can be legitimately helpful to law enforcement). But while the 21st century has taught us the value of distributed computing with hardware, software and wetware, to me this is a dangerous precedent.
Such a hotline seems destined only to waste police officers’ time, and serve as a tool for retribution against that guy down the block whose dog insists on barking all night.
What’s more, promoting constant low-level paranoia, ratting out neighbors, and passively accepting surveillance as virtues is a far cry from “Keep Calm and Carry On,” the unspoken motto of the stiff upper-lipped folks who faced the terrors of Hitler’s onslaught and responded to the wail of air-raid sirens with only clacking heels on cobble-stones.
If you still prefer the old version, you can share the message – or perhaps you appreciate a bit more irony.
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[...] Keep Calm and Carry On, David Claiborne, LuxAmericana, 26th March 2009 [...]
Posted on April 2nd, 2009 at 6:16 am
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