SCI FI REALITY CREEP
Geoff Metcalf
November 4, 2002
NewsWithViews.comFor several years I have been grousing about government use of technology to eviscerate our liberty and freedoms. Sub dermal biochip implants are no longer radical right wing or fundamental Christian fear mongering…..They are reality and Digital Angel is hard at work convincing a gullible world that they are the slickest thing since pre-sliced bread (although, like George Carlin, I never understood what IS so slick about pre-sliced bread).
There is what has become a significant industry overcoming the inevitable objections to “chipping.” They are VERY busy.
* It has been "suggested" that sub-dermal biochip implants could/would assist the military in locating downed pilots.
* Parents’ could/should have them implanted in their children to aid in locating them if lost or kidnapped. .
* Heck, cars now have GPS units that offer help on demand road assistance at the push of a button -- even if YOU don't know where you are some omniscient ‘they’ do.
* Scanners are cheap and, once in production, will get cheaper.
All that is very "what if," and gee whiz. However, the dangers of incrementalism are clearly documented.
Social Security started in 1935.
The current numbering system started in 1936.
The IRS started requiring the numbers on tax returns in 1962.
In 1970, all banks were required to get your number.
My military ID number was changed to my Social Security Number in 1971.
In 1982 ANYONE getting any sort of government kiss had to show his or her number.
Babies now need SSN's, but incrementalism never stops with the last offense.
B K. Eakman recently ripped more leaves off the onion http://www.beverlye.com/implant_20021102.html.
Rapid routine advances in computer cross matching have become as common as pigeon droppings in Trafalgar Square. Covering the full spectrum from census, motor vehicle, tax, title, and insurance databases to school records. The inevitable consequence is an exploding information industry of data traffickers and "brokers," licit and otherwise. All these new data managers/marketers link information to accommodate the needs of employers, credit bureaus, universities, police, corporate spies - and government.
This is a VERY big business and data-laundering results in big money.
Knowledge IS power. Bear with me for a short syllogistic ramble:
Knowledge is power.
Power corrupts
Absolute Power corrupts absolutely
Then Knowledge corrupts
And Absolute Knowledge corrupts absolutely…go figure.
Once upon a time, before ‘power’ crystallized how best to exploit and manipulate ‘knowledge, most analysts were interested in aggregate data. They tried to determine public-policy trends or assess the results of advertising strategies aimed at specific demographics.
However, then came government-mandated database consolidations, standard definitions, uniform codes, and compulsory compatibility among local, state, and federal (drum roll for Hal’s grandparents) computers.
The new generation of ID implants holds a sizable paragraph of information.
Yeah, we get the idea. Big-Flipping-Brother knows where you are ALL the time. Privacy ... the very concept of privacy becomes an anachronism.
Scott McDonald of Scan This News once noted, "A lifetime of information can be easily databased using a microchip system. All movement, transactions, and interactions can be recorded and monitored once everyone has their own unique identifier. Every detail of a person's life will be finally accessible to authorities through the widespread use of implanted chips ... it must begin somewhere and school children are the most likely candidate."
You can damnbetcha that there has been and will be opposition to implanting children and the destruction of privacy. However, McDonald suggests, “Some will holler: 'The Constitution this, and the Constitution that.' But only those social misfits, kooks, and rebels with something to hide will hold out strongly.” Oh yeah? Even those social misfits, kooks, and rebels with NOTHING to hide STILL object. “Little will they know, the very act of objecting, in itself, will suffice to 'identify' them as trouble-makers. They can then be arrested and force-chipped as part of the booking process! Besides, most Americans -- after they've been reminded of all benefits and services they will sacrifice if they refuse -- will soon acquiesce. This is how it worked when Congress enacted laws to coerce parents into numbering their children at birth. A few grumbled for a short while. But, once the threat of no longer being able to claim their children on tax returns set in, they got right in line down at the Social Security Administration and had their children numbered."
The myopic hubris of bureaucratic sphincters is sufficient to gag a maggot. Those of us who still intend to defend and protect the Constitution against ALL enemies; foreign AND domestic are, by "The Controllers'" definition, "social misfits, kooks, and rebels." Then again, according to the FBI Definition, they are Terrorists: "Terrorism is the unlawful use of force or violence against person or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian populace, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives."
F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”
Please let us all “retain the ability to function.”
© 2002 Geoff Metcalf - All Rights Reserved
Geoff is a veteran media performer. He has had an eclectic professional background covering a wide spectrum of radio, television, magazine, and newspapers. A former Green Beret and retired Army officer he is in great demand as a speaker. Metcalf has hosted his radio talk show on the ABC/Disney owned and operated KSFO and in worldwide syndication. www.geoffmetcalf.com