"Then Llefelys ordered a long horn to be made,
and they talked through it together. But whatever each said to the other through the horn, nothing but hateful hostility came to the ears of the other."
____ Lludd and Llefelys (trans. CM)
In this humorous incident from a Welsh story about the legendary King Lludd (HLITH), the king's realm has been overrun by the Coriandnied (Kor-ANN'y-ed), an otherworldly people so omniscient that no secret can be spoken without their hearing of it. Lludd takes to sea to meet up in private with his wise brother, Llefelys, king of France
After cleansing the speaking trumpet of obstructing spirits, Llefelys proposes the sprinkling of the crushed bodies of certain insects into the drinking water, which will be poisonous to the Corannied but harmless to the people of Britain. Lludd returns home and follows this suggestion, destroying the ubiquitous Corannied without harming his own folk.
We live in a society where surveillance is becoming total: in most public places, security cameras pursue and record us. With more aspects of our lives open to scrutiny, there is precious little sense of privacy left. A growing sense of irksome invasion is beginning to characterize our streets, as the new Corannied dog our every step, recording our every move. We no longer feel like private individuals.
There is no magic insect that will rid us of this ubiquitous plague; indeed, the bugging is all on the other side, as telephones are bugged to record private conversations. There are still wild, open spaces, of course, but even those are monitored by satellite these days. This problem of lost privacy can be combated by forceful representation by human rights organizations to world governments. If we value our liberty, we need to defend our privacy in more vigorous ways.
"How does surveillance bug your life? Is it really necessary?"
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]
Image is from http://www.gerardboersma.blogspot.com/
The painting is by Gerard Boersma and is titled:
The Invisible Tyranny of Too Much Entertainment
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