“Curb your soul’s desire for freedom.”
“Curb your soul’s desire for freedom.”
This announcement was repeated night after night from hovering drones slowly and methodically winding their way through narrow channels of high-rise apartments. Below, robotic dogs strapped with giant speakers marched along empty streets:
“Disinfect regularly. Ventilate your home. Prevent the pandemic in a scientific manner.”
Inside a captive audience of frightened and starving residents remained locked in their homes with their doors wired or welded shut. Many took to open windows and balconies to wail in torment or sing mournful songs of lament. Their cries rose up in a chorus of defeat. Pushed beyond their limits, some chose to go over the rail.
It all sounds like a scene from a dystopian nightmare, or the new trailer for Terminator 4. But this was the stark reality in Shanghai, China only a few months ago. And despite what many believe, this nightmare is not an isolated foreign occurrence. It can happen here - a frightening preview of the future that awaits us, if we allow it.
Freedom is built into our bones. The freedom to socialize, to exercise our minds, to raise our children as we see fit, to be left to our own accord, to pursue our creative visions, to establish comfort and security for those we love, to enrich our lives and seek contentment. In other words, to satisfy our soul’s desire.
Freedom exists when no other person or group can know what we are doing, saying, spending, thinking, or feeling. Once this information is collected, stored, monitored, and analyzed, our behavior can be controlled and our freedoms restricted, or even eliminated.
The tools and technologies of surveillance and subjugation are available today that ruthless dictators of the past could only dream of. We may “own” our personal information, but others possess it and will use it against us when necessary to enforce measures considered “for our own good”. All that is needed is justification, a story that resonates and taps into our urge to comply – the social reflex to go along to get along. Compliance is social signaling that demonstrates we are all “in this together”.
Confoundingly, many among us want to be told what to do. Life can be so much easier this way. Why forge through life making difficult decisions when wise and benevolent leaders and their cadre of like-minded experts have learned so much and are willing to make the tough decisions for us, and ultimately, to save us?
The next planned global event will most likely be a coordinated climate lockdown. It will be activated to avert an unquestioned and unquestionable environmental disaster. According to those who have already designed such a program, humans are destroying the planet. If we cannot be trusted to change, we must be forced to comply. The Earth must be saved. Our desire to live as we wish must be curbed.
During this event, each of us will be granted a certain number of days to go outside, or leave our homes, or venture beyond our designated zone. Our diet will be restricted to pre-approved, low-impact foods. Our electric cars will be remotely disabled. Our digital money will be deactivated to reduce unnecessary consumption. Our internet-enabled home thermostats will be automatically set to authorized temperatures. Our smart phones will deliver alerts and instructions about how best to “do our part”. Our communications will be monitored for signs of non-compliance. Neighbors will monitor and police one another and alert authorities. Violators will have their digital identities switched from green to red. Measures based upon “science” will be implemented to lower our emissions, reduce our footprint, and save the Earth from imminent collapse.
“Whatever it takes” should be a phrase that frightens us to our core. It should become the ultimate trigger warning that our freedoms are about to be removed forever. Like our health, we never truly appreciate the deep human desire for freedom until it is gone, or we allow it to be stolen.