Julian Burnside, QC, on the accursed growth of ‘security' cameras:

In Britain, there are more than 6 million CCTV cameras. Not many people seem to care, but it is worth reflecting that most of the cameras we see around town are monitored all the time. If the cameras were replaced by spies, we might react differently. Imagine a society in which the citizens were regularly watched by 6 million human observers.

During the Sydney 2000 Olympics, the cycleway across the Harbour Bridge went from zero cameras to about one every 10 meters (so, 40+). Absurd.