Weapons of mass distraction

I have so many things in my mind these days, and texts like sami's inspire me.
I have been in London last week, and pretty much liked it there, but I felt relieved when I hopped on the Spanish bus and didn't have those 4 black eyes pointed at me.
The number of cameras, EVERYWHERE was overwhelming! The UK is the most "watched" country in the world :4 million electronic eyes of big brother 24 h a day. What for?That doesn't make them the safest country. I don't get the point. An average Londoner will be caught 300 times a day by several cameras, not only surveillance ones, but also "sousveillance". Some of these cameras have mics, some other speakers so that police officers (or the persons watching) can bark at the criminals filmed. They can be purchased anywhere by anyone.
I don't know about the citizens there, how do they feel about that, but from what I've been reading on the web, they don't like it very much, but can't be bothered to do something about it. It reminded me of the movie "V for Vendetta", and could easily imagine the city under a despot and living some kind of George Orwell's 1984.
That stuff freaks me out; but what freaks me out more, are the tons of paper misused in printing bloody stupid useless British tabloids!! These "newspapers" handed to people on the streets 2 times a day everyday are full of gossip (last week was what paris hilton did to britney and what they shopped and whatever bullshit they said to another "star" whose name i can't recall)then some politricks to grow Fear (Russian spy poisoned, and all the mass hysteria that causes the radioactivity detected in picadilly ("2000 people may have been contaminated, go to your local practician and make a check up ASAP", etc) and last but not least sports. that's it! no critical articles, no deep analysis of anything whatsoever, the only thing that would make you think a bit would be sudoku. The fact that these tabloids are free probably prevents public from buying the real newspapers and be aware of the serious stuff and real problems of the world.
TV on the other hand, is, to me, the most powerful weapon of them all. The breaking majority of programs are talk shows, house buying or refurbishing, star academies, etc...and in between a big publicity on the upcoming Flu epidemic, with illustrative huge bugs buzzing on the screen with their angry cartoon faces, onviting you to rush to the closest vaccination centre ("centre of disease control and prevention") to get the shot that will save your life. Of course there are also news, but the big titles and exaggerations that instill fear, and make you want to stay at home, except for shopping, makes you also agree about CCTV and the alleged soothing feeling it should provide.
Suddenly this utopic society we yearn for is beginning to resemble to the worst distopia conceivable.