George Orwell wrote a book in 1949 title “1984” in which ‘Big Brother,’ government took control of every aspect of our lives. Scoffed at for years as a “fictional novel,” the gradual move of American Society towards such an Orwellian government seems closer than ever.

Brian Baird (D.Wa.), formerly a Clinical Psychologist, has introduced a bill, H.R.3247 – “To establish a social and behavioral sciences research program at the Department of Energy, and for other purposes.”

The bill has passed out of committee along a party line vote with no Republicans voting for it, although a couple were said to have initially supported it.

In May 2009 Baird was an advocate of, “Changing Consumer Behavior is Crucial to Reducing Energy Use.”

Do we really need government studying us for modification of our behaviors, be it energy consumption or anything else that would fall under the “for other purposes” in the title?

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) pointed out the obvious danger in this bill with, “At some point controlling people’s behavior and social engineering becomes a threat to people’s freedom.”