Quite a lot of people have noticed how rising inequality within states looks like a throwback to the hierarchical age of feudalism. The Null Device makes the more original observation that the hyper-modern technology of mass surveillance also has an ironically medieval vibe:
So, in the age of mass surveillance ... we may be facing a psychological retreat from modernity towards the mediaeval mindset; only instead of the omniscient God and His recording angels seeing every sinful thought in our fallible souls and recording it for the final judgment, it is the temporal powers with their intercepts and algorithms, and the judgment is potentially a lot closer. Most sinners will hope that, if they keep their heads down, they can squeeze through purgatory relatively quickly, while a hard core who know they are already damned will raise hell.
For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.Proverbs 5:21
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