Are we really that far from something like white bear happening?

         As a precautionary measure, I told myself I would never watch The Black Mirror series because from what I had heard about it, I knew it would a) mess me up, b) make me paranoid, and c) cause my faith in humanity to fall even lower. Three statements that were later proven true by the two episodes we have watched in class so far. I have to say that while the White Bear episode freaked me out like the Be Right Back episode, it did not scare me on the same level as the last episode; however, it most definitely added onto the list of reasons as to why I am losing faith in humanity. I am cynical and a realist to a certain extent, so that covers half of my feelings and thought process, when I say that I would not be too surprised or caught off guard if something similar to the scenario in the episode were to exist in real life in the near future. Would anyone really be that surprised if it were to happen? A mere glance at our justice system--at the current treatment of prisoners, at the death sentence, at Ice holding cells--shows you that we are actually pretty close and not too far off. I know to some it may seem like it would not happen, since the severity and use of the death sentence is decreasing across some states,but I can actually see it as happening. Maybe it will not be something that just pops up one day, but it could start off as something small, as a mere suggestion to the world. Something along the lines of the foot-in-door phenomenon where it starts off as something small, like light public humiliation--but before we know it, we will blink and the idea will have taken off and developed like White Bear. Which makes you ask yourself how do you make something stop, how do you keep it from developing into something like that? Would we have to completely reform and rebuild our justice system from scratch? Change the way the media portrays and presents criminals, even the light offenses? Change the way we think and act? But in a country where it feels like everything is intricately connected with money, politics, and power, where do we even start and how will we know when we have successfully achieved the desired outcome?