I watched Harry Bergeron this morning. Even though it's a 1995 film, and written much earlier, it just feels so relevant, in that Claire Wolfe sort of way:
"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards."
I think a lot of us know (or at least believe) that's where the world is at right now… Too far gone to save, but not far enough along yet in its collapse to convince the average mundane it's time to have another revolution. So what do we do?
There are a lot of little things happening that people aren't paying attention to that are very important — I'll mention the three single largest things that people need to be wary of (to my mind anyway). I mention these as someone who has worked on some of these technologies for the past fifteen years:
- Consolidation of databases and information into a centrally processable form, and eliminating privacy blocks that slow this process. By consolidating all known information about people into singular searchable databases, we are able to not only know almost everything about a person, but consolidated with everyone else's records we can very accurately “model” them and predict their actions and desires. The easiest way to control someone and make them subservient is to know everything about them… Why do you think so much money is spent on market research?
- Consolidation of media empires allowing for unanimous multi-channel messages. By reducing the media to a single message spoken using different voices, the megacorporations that own the media are able to give the impression of a multitude of messages when in fact it is a monolith. When you control all of the mediums of information delivery, you control the information. When you control the information, you control the thoughts of your audience.
- Consolidation of retarded education. By retarding (as in purposely slowing down) the education process, you are left with people who can read, but don't enjoy it — so they can read enough to “get by” and “do their job”, but not enough that they'll seek to educate themselves via online written (independent) media, but instead rely on the megacorp's television stations.
It's no secret that all of these are happening in bulk. Not only are these all happening, but the government is putting in laws to speed up the process and veto any attempts to stop it. Remember one thing:
A corporation has all of the rights of a human being (and then some), but can not effectively be criminally charged, has sometimes millions of times the financial power of a human being, and has an infinite lifespan. In addition, a corporation is legally obliged to put profit above all else, including ethics and the law.
A lot of people on the edges of politics (left or right) make the mistake of blaming the US or the US government, and decrying Bush et al as “the enemy”. This of course ignores the real foe — the US government is largely a bunch of greedy old men. They don't control the system at all. Not one bit. They simply got lucky and are siphoning off of it.
The terrifying truth is that there is no leader. No one is “controlling” this process. There is no Illuminati. There is no conspiracy of Jewish bankers. There is no Bavarian ultra-rich secret society that decides where the world is going:
It's terrifying because you realize that eventually it really will be The Corporation. “The” as in singular. Eventually, after massive financial battles, a single corporation will buy out all of the assets of all other corporations combined. With only the smallest exceptions, we will have a single employer in the entire world, which will control every single aspect of life.
This corporation will of course have a board of directors, which will be directed by intelligent computer systems which map their markets and optimize profit. The board of directors answers to the stockholders, who have no real voice, and, in a cycle of ambiguity, no one is the leader and the machine rolls on. What kind of world will we get?
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