Knowledge Speaks; Wisdom Listens.
I recently had an experience I had dreaded having to go through. I finally had to get my bio-metric information collected by the People's Republic of China Government (facial recognition and fingerprint scans.)
This was something that I had narrowly escaped having to do 4 months ago when I was crossing the border from Hong-Kong into Shenzhen. This time, when I arrived to Beijing Capital Airport from my flight in Hong-Kong, I was greeted with these clerks and machines that were there to collect my bio-metric information.
I wanted to protest; but I know how PRC laws and regulations are, especially new national security measures: you're not going to skirt them no matter how hard you try...
So instead of being incredibly confrontational, I tried to take a more naive and innocent approach. I was asking the lady why I had to give my bio-metric information, how it would be used, did I have any rights at all, or what kind of implicit consent I was giving.
I was simply told: "All new entrants of the PRC must comply with government regulations, no questions, no exceptions, no ifs, ands or buts."
Well, they had me by the balls; and I've learned it's important in life to know when to pick our fights.
This airport terminal immigration check was not where I was going to score any points against the sprawling technocratic totalitarianism that seems to be growing in our world.
But I was profoundly shook up by this experience (first of all because I had actually managed to get through one of these bio-metrics checks without giving my information, and this time, was completely unable to); to me, being forced to hand over my fingerprints, and my facial structure... As a thinking, rather freedom loving kind of human, I don't like the idea that it's going to be ten times easier for the Chinese secret service and data-collection departments to track every single one of my movements, build complex maps of my social networks, economic transactions, to say nothing of what comes after this.
It just seems like a little yellow star I have to wear embroidered on all my clothing, since I can be easily and effortlessly identified, and granted or denied access to services based on a single switch that can be flicked on or off at any given moment, for any given purpose.
This is the direction that society is moving towards, and nowhere is this more pronounced than in densely populated huge national security states like America and China. The worst is, as an American, I couldn't even get angry at the Chinese because the USA started collecting people's bio-metric first, so there's no way I can "blame" China for these incredibly invasive and unnecessary technological developments.
But that's besides the point, because at the end of the day all of this is headed towards global scientific dictatorship, for which exists a mountain of evidence one can distill from observation of current social and technological trends, sociological and political patterns of human development and the predictability of cyclical historical phenomena.
Utopia is not in the cards for us right now, and global society is headed for a challenge for which it is not (yet) prepared.
I kind of like this, but one thing I realized is that a new form of slavery is rapidly encroaching on society, and though it doesn't fundamentally change anything; it's still a difficult concept to come to grasps with... But a tremendously important one that however loves freedom and life must begin to grapple with...
Why we can't stay silent...
I've been thinking about it for a long time and I must admit, I really don't want to support this technocratic fascist 1984 world order. I see the signs of its advent everywhere, have long come to be able to perceive its covert means of imposing its tyranny, and believe resistance and opposition to this system, in favor of the establishment of a much superior system; is in some form, a part of my life-calling.
But I'm not sure I know how to resist this monster. The only method I can even think of resisting it is with ideas...
But what kind of ideas can be put forward to counteract this all-swallowing and devouring narrative of global scientific world government. How can it be done?
No matter how much I listen to alt-right ideas, about a return to nationalism, or alt-left ideas, about a vehement opposition to all power-structures; the problems don't seem to be addressed at all...
If so, and the answer lies outside of the "Political Spectrum", in any way that anybody has as of yet formulated it; then anarchy in some form must prevail. Yet can the Universe actually tolerate anarchy? Real anarchy?
On the one hand, it would mean that every single human on Earth were capable of autonomy, and owning themselves; which in theory sounds great, but in practice, is difficult to imagine. Add to that the idea of intelligent allocation of global resources and the issue of authority seems to become the hardest one to argue against.
Can the price mechanism and free-market system actually compete in the coming era with technocratic ideals of meritocracy? And how would meritocracy actually look? Would it be a horrific or marvelous system for people to live in?
And what if technocracy was not even meritocratic? What if it lead to the the most arbitrary, unfair and poorly conceived system in human recorded history; because it could not account or factor for the innumerable amounts of variables that go into the efficient maintenance of complex systems.
I don't know. From a psychoanalytical point of view I feel like there is something quite powerful in such myths as the Odyssey and the Iliad. In the beginning, we must heroically go out into the world and do glorious battle with it. This might mean setting up our business, pursuing a difficult career, becoming a master in one or more skills... "Paying your dues" as it were: building our value, our worth, our network, our abilities.
Because ultimately, I feel like no matter how corrupt, how rotten, how broken-down a society is; there's a duty to fight the good fight, to do battle with the injustice of the world, and even suffer for it... To build something that will outlast us on this planet, a legacy that marks the world with the sign of every single moment of time.
Only once this has been done, can we begin our journey back to our core; to find the spiritual path within us. To tackle our demons and the monsters in our shadow. To find our way back home, somewhere where we can enter the second part of life in peace and contemplation, to prepare for death, and continually find the greater meaning of life.
I dislike the idea of being a slave very much, but I love the idea of working my little ass off and emancipating myself into true freedom. I guess it's okay to be born into slavery as long as one dedicates his life to making it out of it...
I think throughout history, all peoples of all times have had this reality imposed on them.
It just seems like there's something incredibly powerful in that. That throughout the exercise of our mental and bodily abilities, we will find a certain kind of redemption and triumph at the end of it all... Not until we have been tested over and over again, beaten down and gotten back up countless times, until we are turned from weak individuals into the strongest and most incorruptible of leaders.
I've realized there's no viable shortcuts or ways of cheating the Universe. It takes incredibly guts and risk-taking to even be able to make the jump. And defeats, throughout the path; are inevitable. The only determining factor is whether we are able to turn those defeats, into victories...
I guess I've been silent on a lot of issues, and I don't want to be silent anymore... I want to be a part of the dialogue and the conversation surrounding human emancipation. I don't want to be a self-serving materialist; I want to follow a spiritual path of light and truth, wherever it takes me...
Pixabay: Iris-Scan / Chinese-Print / Technocratic-Futurism / Life / Androids
Source: Social-Engineering