I have given much thought to how modern living and technology has affected our reactions and responses. Either to hinder or help, they are both an outcome it seems. An extra neurological demand on a brain that may not be able to adapt as well as others could cause issues. Seems logical and quite obvious to me. But apparently not. There is an expectation of one size fits all, and if you don’t, they make a new category for you. Remedial, slow, backwards, retarded, autistic to name a few from back in the day if you were ‘below standard’. Keeping in mind, that was someone else’s standard and they got to decide if you were acceptable for modern society. And they still do it today, they just use less harsh words and pretend it’s for everyone’s ‘greater good’. Rather than utilise people’s differences, they seem hellbent on making us all the same.
Not everyone has taken to, or enjoys technology. And now it is becoming more complicated, with multiple layers of access, passwords, and data, people are struggling. Which it is not an accident I might add. It leads them in nicely to offer a ‘one solution fits all’ just as above with the ‘standard’. This will be the same model. Oh, we made it too hard, let us help you kind of thing. But maybe they are just utilising one of our failings, and maybe it’s one we are not entirely aware of ourselves.
When we are bamboozled and overloaded with information or a new skill, I believe our brain has a rerouting mechanism, to try and compensate. To take on the new task effectively, something else has to give way. In my case and what led me to question this, was a new task in my early 20’s. Learning to drive. As I became competent in learning to drive, my ability to concentrate and say left or right correct diminished. I had never previously had any issues with right or left commands, and although I did the right one, I said the wrong one and hand motion followed suit. I was bemused and intrigued. How could something so simple have suddenly become so difficult? I just decided it was an extra motor neuron task my brain had to adapt to, and it struggled. With computers however, I have no issue and speedily pick up new tasks, so mental vs manual also appeared to be a factor.
I have then applied this train of thought to other situations and people and wonder if they too have a particular issue in that type of arena. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks they say, but sometimes you can, so I wonder if it’s similar. Some have set brain patterns at a certain age and are not flexible to adapt or change, and some people are. At all ages. And they have labels ready for anyone who might not fit or can’t adapt. Which is why I think people do well to manage this strange modern society and way of life. Despite all the hurdles they put in our way.
It really has snowballed hasn’t it? Within a very short time we have gone from going about our business and daily lives, to having most aspects of it blindsided.
Years ago, only mere decades, people used cash so most of the transactions weren’t noted. Debit cards came in which started to pull it all together. We didn’t have smart tv’s or meters, no tracking devices on cars, no CCTV, no mobile phones. On the face of it, introducing all those things appeared to make life easier. For you to monitor yourself and use those things to save time and hassle.
But the purpose has switched. All of that now traps us, monitors us, and will ultimately it seems, be used against us. Everything moving online, including medical appointments is the worst thing we could have done. And I know it seems silly to think any one person alone would be interesting in their usage of things or what they spend or eat. But with that they know how to get to you, and collectively they can manipulate things. Knowledge is power as they say.
They also do not appear to be making a secret of a social credit score scheme rolling out, similar to another country recently mentioned in the media a lot. But let’s be honest, we have a class system in this country going back centuries which used to be your social credit score, then we introduced credit cards and a credit rating. Sounds like a credit system to me. And we blithely accepted that one without question. Keen to ‘earn points’ by being in debt, and jumping through financial hoops to be good enough to lend money to so you can take part in society.
What seems to be coming is a levelled-up version of that. But the way it is being intermingled with the current agenda, I have suspicions of how intrusive it will end up being. My piece on Cash and the incoming cashless society touched upon this, but I will go further and piece together what I see.
The roll out of fitbit and apple watches to monitor your heartbeat and vitals. Exercise bikes in the home fitted up to a central system that knows you are exercising. Smart fridges that can be controlled by something somewhere. Points and incentives already for shopping where they encourage you to. Sounds like a credit system and monitoring to me, but we invited it, signed up to it and didn’t notice when they changed the rules. (I don’t have any of the above, because of where I see it going, when I say we, I talk of the collective). They are already talking of ‘incentives’ to make you lose weight and live healthier by their standards. So let’s examine what that means. In my mind, to monitor someone on that, you have to have them log in every morning, noon and night, fill in what they eat, they drink and what they do in a day. Sounds a bit intrusive doesn’t it? Well, how else would they know? They have proved they don’t trust the public one bit to make their own decisions or run their own lives.
So, picture it. You wake up, sign into your app, do your exercise, eat what they say, you get your points for the day or approval rating for your transaction. Then the next day the same, but after a week or so they decide they need to know more information. They suspect you are eating things while you are out and not reporting them, so they install a urine monitor. Every morning, noon and night, you now have to give them a sample, to prove that you are complying. They lock your fridge once you have gone over your allotted calorie intake for the day. They restrict your card so you can’t buy food while out. They insist it is to keep you healthy, but you end up hungry, stressed, sneaking around and unhappy. But they know better than you right?
You might think that is a far-fetched scenario, and for the sake of where we are, I genuinely hope you don’t. Because is there really any difference in recent talks of making people film themselves taking harmful, inaccurate and costly tests at home, to prove they are complying? It’s a slippery slope and one we are already on and picking up speed at an alarming pace. When they start interfering in where you can go, who you can see and what you can say should have been the first warning. It will be followed by what you can wear, what you can eat, how much you can weight. Because you know, save the NHS, or whatever crisis they invent to serve their purpose. Just imagine the worst, most vindictive, controlling, hateful and unreasonable parent in the world, calling all the shots in your life, for the rest of your life. Making the most outrageous demands, stopping you doing things you enjoy just because they like depriving you of things. Now, translate that to who oversees us currently. No-one should have more right over your body than you. Full stop. You can try and use the selfish argument, I hear it a lot, but is it not the height of selfishness to force and coerce someone to do something because you want them to. Demanding and selfish in fact. “I want you to do something to keep me safe” – I and me used there. Says more about the person demanding and the person not bending to it. Keeping someone else happy is not more important than my own safety, health and wellbeing.
I would just ask that everyone take a good long hard look around them. Really see these systems for what they are, understand what they intend to do with them, and how that will change things going forward. I do not wish for things to always remain the same or go back to the way they were, I’m not afraid of progress when it is required and logical and think we should be an adaptive species. But we are being steered by very wilful, controlling people who have wanted to and have been enacting their ideas and agendas for quite some time. If you can work your way through all the smokescreens, lies and diversions, it is there in plain sight. And it isn’t pretty…
Another possibility of where this monitoring may lead and what they may be viewing us as, my later article – Perhaps
Photo from the book The People Shapers by Vance Packard.
As mentioned briefly in my other post The before time, I want to talk about mobile phones. I have never been a fan of telephones, as an invention, yes, it is fantastic. For personal use, no. I do not like talking on the phone, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I don’t like my phone voice so it makes me uncomfortable the longer the conversation usually goes on. And secondly, I cannot see the persons face, so I find it hard to engage for very long. I can imagine them, but it’s not the same. Facetime suits me better if I have to.
It started with landlines though, before they were just used for the internet. I hated ours. I hated the unpredictability of when it would ring. A shrill noise to cut through your thoughts. A doorbell has the same effect. And an alarm clock when set. I also have neither of those in my life. To me it was the intrusion into what you were doing, as well as suddenly having to muster the energy or want to talk to someone. Going in blind to a conversation with potentially a complete stranger.
So fast forward to mobile phones. They designed something so that you could be reached by anyone with your number, all hours of the day. Great for business or if you need to be reachable. Other than that, it became a burden to me very quickly, and I suspect other people too, a source of anxiety and stress. Until one day, after having quite severe anxiety issues because of being called and texted every day by the same person, I decided to take control of it and not let my phone or someone else influence my moods too much. It was simple. I switched off the ringer. Silent. And it has remained that way for over 10 years now. I also run a business and it was one of the best things I could do for it. I stopped getting interrupted, was still contactable, just not at the convenience of other people. I was available at my own convenience. I worked out the root of my issues, identified them and took steps to sort them out.
As the years have gone on it has changed even further. Smart phones now instead of just mobile, suddenly it wasn’t just a phone, it was a mobile computer. You could play games, communicate, run your business, shop, watch TV and engage with multiple things at once. An awful saying/joke emerged which made me sad – “What is the fuzzy bit round the edge of the screen? Real life!” And then apparently laughter follows. But not for me, not for that. My humour towards the destruction of human interaction and qualities is limited, I see it as a bad thing if it is your only reference point for life and people. They have now been with us for a couple of decades, so time has told, and people do not seem happier for it. I find it odd how in a time of information, we seem to know less than we ever did. And in an age of unlimited communication, we have never felt so far apart.
MKW Publishing 