Does Surveillance Make Us Morally Better?

Central Argument: Surveillance does not truly make us morally better because it only forces us to the right thing rather than doing it from the bottom of our heart.

Here is my question. Do we do the right thing because someone is watching us or do we do the right thing because we want to be morally right? I should probably answer with a quote by Roger Penrose: “As for morality, well that's all tied up with the question of consciousness.” True morality, I believe, depends on a question of consciousness.

In an article Does Surveillance Make Us Morally Better, Emrys Westacott answers that Surveillance does not truly make us morally better because it only forces us to the right thing rather than making us to the right thing from the bottom of our heart. I completely agree with Westacott’s answer because Thomas More’s Utopia and human nature prove that nothing can truly make human beings morally right.

As most of you know, Thomas More was a socialist who desired to create a “Utopian Society” where there is justice and equality. However, such an ideal world never existed and will never exist because men are covetous and self-centered because nothing can be right with such an evil nature of human being. Utopia can be created under one and only condition – that is morality. Thomas More, therefore, created specific plans to make men physically, mentally, and morally perfect, which is to place people in a system of eight hours of sleep, eight hours of work, and eight hours of leisure. Such is an example of surveillance that failed to work.  

Perhaps, you may think surveillance now can make us morally better with an advanced technology – Closed Circuit Tele Vision (CCTV). It is true that anyone under scrutiny or CCTV will definitely act moral because they are conscious of someone watching them. But this tells us that if there is no CCTV, then someone may not act moral. As a human being, it is hard to deny that many of us will not always act moral when there is nothing that is watching us. In fact, many of us will behave immoral whenever we want if there is no surveillance. Suppose there was $10,000 on the ground and there is no one watching us, but it is not yours. Out of ten people at least half of them will pick it up and use it for themselves. This time, everything is in same condition except there is CCTV. Out of then people no one will steal it unless the person doesn’t mind getting imprisoned. This example apparently shows that morality is depends on whether there is surveillance or not. So how can we dare to say that surveillance is making us morally better? When there is no surveillance, we have to admit the fact that our result can be different. Surveillance is a mere method that forces us to the right thing rather than teaching us to the right thing. Therefore, surveillance cannot make us morally better.

Surveillance does play a role in making us to do the right thing. However, as Emrys Westacott argued, we must realize that it can never truly make us morally better. Thomas More and many other idealists failed to create a Utopian Society with a method of surveillance. Our human nature shows that we cannot become better by surveillance. Remember this: Right behavior means nothing unless it reflects a person who wants to do the right thing.