e Stasi comes to Stanford University

If you have never seen “The Lives of Others” — a 2006 German film that won a Golden Globe and an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, you should try to obtain a copy.

None other than National Review founder, the late William F. Buckley, wrote in his nationally syndicated column that “The Lives of Others” was possibly the best movie he ever saw.

The film is set appropriately enough in George Orwell’s favorite year, 1984, in East Berlin. Directed by first-time director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, the movie was about life under what had become a surveillance state in East Germany under Soviet Communist rule. It’s a cautionary tale for those of us in the U.S. as 17 different “intelligence” agencies (and probably even more that function under the radar and that escape any kind of congressional scrutiny) operate within the United States, and whose putative mission is “protecting homeland security.”

We are in danger of falling into the same trap East German citizens found themselves living in before the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.

The Ministry for State Security (Stasi) was the name of the East German secret police in charge of monitoring the movements of its citizens.

All its citizens.

All the time.

Listening in on private conversations were everyday affairs for Stasi officers and were important methods of gathering “intelligence.”

Even more important was the wide web of civilian snoops who’d regularly report on friends, neighbors, strangers and/or acquaintances.

Because so many fellow residents regularly reported to Stasi, it had become nearly impossible to ascertain who was a friend and who was not. Everyone and anyone could be an informant. Even one’s

“best friend” or lover could be a collaborator. Political opinions voiced during private conversations were offered cautiously if at all, in fear that someone may be listening … and reporting. Turns out also that one could not be too cautious, for as soon as someone — anyone — hinted that you may harbor conspiratorial or antiregime thoughts, Stasi was on it. Every room in your apartment could and would be bugged, including your bathroom, your bedroom, even your outdoor patio if you were lucky enough to have one.

The plot of “The Lives of Others” revolves around an internationally renowned playwright named Georg Dreyman, who publicly avows his solidly communist views but who secretly despises everything about the East German government. He has been communicating with

Western sympathizers hoping to expose the evils of communism. Unbeknownst to him, his apartment has come under surveillance by members of a Stasi team who’ve set themselves up in the top floor of his apartment building and are conducting around-the-clock listening details. The writer’s girlfriend has been compromised by a relationship with the high-ranking East German minister of culture, the man who has ordered the initial surveillance.

THE PLOT THICKENS

After a friend who had been betrayed and blacklisted by those he believed were friends commits suicide, his death is not reported as such, and Dreyman publishes an anonymous article in Der Spiegel, a West German weekly. The article accuses East Germany of hiding statistics on the country’s startlingly high suicide rates. Embarrassed by the article, the Ministry of Culture is determined to track down and punish the author.

East German law requires every typewriter to be registered, but after Stasi receives a copy of the manuscript, it is unable to determine its source and could not match the typeface to any of its registered devices. Dreyman wrote his article on a secretly supplied typewriter from Der Spiegel designed to escape detection.

Dreyman, of course, has to hide his typewriter and does so — under a floorboard in an interior doorway of his apartment — and the only other person who knew its whereabouts was his compromised girlfriend.

I won’t reveal any more of the movie’s plot, but I did want to compare life under Stasi to life as a student at Stanford University.

Along with more “administrators” than it knows what to do with, the campus features an Anonymous Bias Reporting System, under which students are advised as freshmen that they could and should

On the subject of new technology, Did You Know? was exposed to the power of a combination of artificial intelligence technology, coupled with many drones. We learned how this combination can replace human efforts for both good and evil.

A.I. and drone technologies are developing fast. While not feasible today, imagine the day when four large container ships — with legitimate papers and controlled by artificial intelligence — are cruising hundreds of miles apart outside American territorial waters, along the American Pacific and Atlantic coasts.

At 2 a.m., the doors of their containers open. From each ship, hundreds of A.I.-controlled drones rise and fly over all the major East Coast and West Coast cities. Boston, New York, Washington, Miami, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego. What will the drones deliver to the millions of people living there?

Multiple balloons can fly, undetected, across American airspace. How about four ships in two pairs, hundreds of miles apart on two oceans, hidden among hundreds of others?

On another matter, a reader of Did You Know? dropped off a copy of 46 pages of highly detailed, questions that are very intrusive of personal privacy, called “The American Community Survey,” they received in the mail.

It is conducted by the Census Bureau and is mandated by your U.S. government that the recipients are, by law, required to respond.

Did You Know? does not know the full use to which the collected information will be put. It might well be a test for including these questions in future, full census surveys.

Not only are recipients required to reveal the most private details of their personal lives, but they are also required to identify themselves by name. Failure to complete and return the survey or to provide inaccurate answers will result in heavy fines.

This is not a census survey, in that it has been sent only to 3 million households, out of 123.6 million in America, but it is already here in Santa Barbara.

Hope that you do not receive one.

This survey is designed not only to identify you but also to probe into every aspect of your life and your resident family’s life. Your life histories, your employment, and your complete financial situation are all included, and more. If this is a test for a complete

Wendy McCaw Arthur von Wiesenberger Co-Publisher Co-Publisher