"You had to live — did live, from habit that became instinct — in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard ..." The world of George Orwell's 1984 has an extreme and frightening political system.

Many have compared the United States' current system to it, a system where someone can become a "thought-criminal."

Despite the extreme, much can be learned and applied to the United States from Orwell's authoritarian government and many other dangerous dictatorships. The national identification system, or "REAL ID Act" of 2005 and other forms of spying are a step in that direction.

I don't claim that the U.S. government will begin to torture and detain people because they thought wrong. However, I do fear the current political trend.

The REAL ID Act called for a national license, or a state driver's license that follows certain standards. Most requirements are insignificant except, "A common machine-readable technology, with defined minimum data elements."

Although the "minimum" is only typical reports of violations, this could include any data on any American that the government deems necessary.

This card would be necessary for boarding a plane and nearly every federal government service.

Jim Harper, Director of Information Policy Studies at the CATO Institute, said, "Having a national ID would promote a surveillance society that we should all dread."

Fortunately, Washington state has taken measures to stop the implementation of this act due to costs, predicted to amount to almost 2 billion in the next decade, and privacy concerns.

The bill, SB 5087, passed in January states, "The data collected would be subject to inaccuracies and susceptible to increased unauthorized disclosure as it would be shared among states."

Frighteningly similar to the TVs in every room in 1984, the Pentagon's Defense Science Board in its 2006 Summer Study called for "TiVo-like" systems that can record and rewind to capture the culprits of any event.

They use the example of a car bomb, yet to capture such an event, the government would need video cameras all over the United States. This desire to have "omnipresent knowledge" is frightening and convenient for catching any other mischief, illegal or not.

The Pentagon wants the ability to record and study every moment for potential "terrorist threats." But these plans could threaten the security, freedom and civil rights of the American people, not to mention the many immigrants that would be hindered by such bills.

Beyond the fiction of George Orwell, many states with national identification systems have used them for frightening purposes. Although a cliché case for many arguments, Hitler's Germany used identity cards to determine life and death. Similarly, identity cards drove the genocide in Rwanda.

Apartheid South Africa had many different forms of identity cards based on lineage, preventing anyone who wasn't purely white from living a free life. Many Third World countries require passports to cross internal regions, preventing many ethnic groups from accessing opportunities.

In China, the Hukou system provides identity cards to rural and urban residents. Until recently, rural residents were not allowed to find jobs in cities, forcing them to stay in rural poverty.

In many ways, the REAL ID and other observational systems are more frightening than other identity cards because Americans would have no idea what their licenses tell the government. These forms of observation could create government paranoia based on inaccurate information, hurting many innocent people.

Just as Orwell's character Winston was dragged to a torture chamber for thinking against the government, innocent Americans could be detained (possibly without a lawyer due to the PATRIOT Act) for being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

As students and University members, we should be especially concerned, as we comprise the historically rebellious group.

I believe the government should be acting to stop terrorism, but spying on 300 million Americans isn't going to solve anything. We shouldn't have to be afraid that our government is watching our every move, considering our every thought.

If these omnipresent privileges got into the wrong hands or a malicious government came to power, you had better watch your back.

Reach columnist Brooke McKean at opinion@thedaily.washington.edu.