Technological dependence and the end of freedom
By Brandon Smith
Technology can be dazzling but also debilitating to real human progress, and when I say "progress" I do not mean advancements in the world of machines but advancements in the world of people, and one does not necessarily lead to the other.
First, I fully recognize that whenever anyone attempts to criticize technological innovation, they take the risk of being labeled a "crackpot" or an "outdated fossil," a barbaric relic of a foregone era. However, this attitude is an ignorant one. It assumes that the path we are on as a species is one of perpetual improvement as long as we continue to follow the great technology god; but what if this assumption is completely wrong? What if we are actually devolving rather than evolving?
I'm not here to grunt and shake my spear at the wheel and the combustion engine and the programmable computer — I like all these things. But what I don't like is the dark future I see when humanity turns machinery into a great metal, polymer and digital "nurse maid" and we lose our ability to take care of ourselves. Dependency is the cornerstone of slavery, and our civilization is becoming increasingly dependent.
In my time on this earth I have had the privilege and suffered the pain of watching the digital age come to fruition. I witnessed the creation of the home computer, the birth of the internet, the proliferation of cellular technology, and now the spread of "artificial intelligence" and 5G. I have also seen the decay of an entire generation of millennials into uselessness and despondency, lacking any practical skills of production or survival and completely reliant on digital technology for everything, including building up illusions of friendship and intimacy. I have witnessed the pussification of America.
The counterarguments against this will vary. Some will say that our society has simply become more convenient and more comfortable, and this is a good thing. Other will claim that skeptics like myself are afraid of the social changes that come with the globalization that the digital age brings. Still, others will maintain that centralization and dependency are "natural" extensions of man's evolution; that it is inevitable and so we should embrace it.
These are the classic arguments of the Futurists, a subculture of ideological zealots who believe that all old ideas and ways of living must be treated as obsolete and thrown out to make way for all new ideas and ways of living. The notion is that all new ideas are an automatic improvement; that each new generation is superior to the one before it as it supposedly has access to more knowledge, and thus it is wiser. But knowledge is not the same as wisdom and it is often misused to achieve rather barbaric and vulgar goals.
What the futurists will never admit is that there are very few new ideas in the world, only old ideas rehashed and recycled and repainted to look different. In the grand scheme of history, freedom as an idea is very old, but it's social application on a grand scale is something entirely new. Centralization, whether by brute force, manipulation or technological entrapment, is hardly a revolutionary concept. It is the oldest of philosophies.
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The trend today indicates a path to swift centralization, and according to the evidence this is not a natural progression but the consequence of a deliberate agenda by elitist groups that wish to remain in power. The advent of many technologies today is not necessarily the problem, it is how these technologies are being applied in our society that is infantilizing the masses.
Let's discuss some specific examples.
Communication overload
Cell technology and the internet have changed the world. With a web connected computer in your pocket, you will always be able to communicate with others, you will rarely get lost, and you can even record video of everywhere you go and everything you do — instant memories. Who knows how much time this technology has added to a person's day, or how many lives it has saved? But let's consider the darker side...
First, attention spans of Western nations have shortened to less than that of goldfish since 2002; right around the time that cellphone and internet use began to explode. According to overall research the average person now spends up to four hours a day just looking at their cellphone, and combined with daily social media use at home and at work I expect that this number increases dramatically. In fact, American adults spend approximately 11 hours per day interacting with various media. That's most of their waking life being distracted by minutia.
The parts of the world that have instant access to this technology are being zombified and they don't seem to realize it. Over-saturation of information and instant gratification trigger an oxytocin and dopamine response in the human brain similar to the response we get when we socialize normally, but there is evidence to suggest that the strength of human interaction has a lot to do with the level of pleasure we receive through a dopamine response.
Social media interactions are a poor proxy for real relationships. So, social media creates a near constant flow of dopamine, but also weaker and less significant. This has led to a new form of addiction, perhaps more invasive than any chemical drug in existence.
Interaction with other human beings without social media or instant gratification has become unthinkable, but the real world does not function on such a short timetable, and so, people have begun to discard time when forced to do remedial tasks; refusing to experience the pauses or quiet moments in life, refusing to ponder experiences and explore deeper meaning behind the events they read about briefly each day in their news feeds. All the information is at their fingertips, but they have no clue how to absorb it or apply it critically.
Inviting the watchers into your home
People do a lot of stupid things in the name of convenience, including opening their homes to surveillance and tyranny under the guise of easy living. While a cellphone is essentially a listening device, video surveillance device and tracking device in your pocket that governments and corporations can exploit anytime they wish, the problems do not stop there. The future of technology is fully interconnected homes in which everything it digital and everything is linked to the "internet of things."
We have seen some of this exposed recently with controversies over Amazon's Alexa tech, which is essentially a large and sensitive listening device which people pay for with their own money and voluntarily place in the middle of their homes. Amazon has been caught on multiple occasions collecting vast amounts of data from their Alexa network, including recordings of customer conversations which the government then has access to.
But this is a less subtle example. Consider having all your home appliances linked to the web and what this would mean? Government surveillance of daily electrical usage, which means they would know when you are home and what you are doing at all times. This might not seem like a big deal if you think you "have nothing to hide," but in a world where carbon Nazis are attempting to dictate every aspect of our lives, your electrical usage might become a legal issue one day. Not to mention, if every single device in your home is voice activated for convenience, then this means they could also be used to listen to your every private word.
Privacy is the foundation of freedom. All tyranny relies first on the invasion of privacy and the removal of private spaces. The 4th Amendment exists for a very good reason. The argument that "if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear" is a very foolish one. Governments are commonly made up of fallible people who are often corrupt, but frankly no one has the objectivity and wisdom necessary to oversee the private actions and conversations of millions of citizens and then judge them fairly. Politicians and bureaucrats are the least qualified and yet we give them the most power to oversee our lives, all in the name of technological convenience.
Artificial intelligence and automation
When it comes to technology the mass surveillance issue is the subject most discussed, but there is a problem that concerns me even more — automation. There are plenty of menial tasks in this world that probably should be handled through industry and robotics, but some things should be required learning for every person. For example, do we really want the complete automation of food production in our society? Well, that is the goal of corporations, and it could destroy our ability to provide our own necessities in the future simply by removing the knowledge from our social memory.
The ability to grow food and harvest food, as well as collecting seeds for future harvests, is integral to human survival. The concept of hunting and gathering is so far removed from the average person's daily life that it is almost a lost art form, but we have not lost all knowledge of food production yet. What I see though is a bleak future if the current path of technological centralization continues.
Imagine a world in which nearly everyone is hyperconnected to media, to the point that they wear their devices like clothing at all times. Imagine a society where the average person is so enveloped by data that they no longer pay any attention to the tangible world around them and almost all human interactions are achieved through the middleman of the internet. Imagine people so infantilized by convenience that they no longer know how to do anything for themselves. They no longer know how to produce goods. They no longer know how to fix anything that is broken. They no longer know how to grow food or find water, nor do they even know where it comes from. They are completely dependent.
They live completely on the grid, they are born on the grid, and if you were to pluck them from their life of convenient slavery and place them in the middle of the woods surrounded by food water and potential shelter they would still die. Now realize that this is basically reality today for many people. And the virus of dependency is spreading.
To truth and knowledge,
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There are two basic problems when presidents seek nominees to fill positions. Most seek someone who has been in Washington, knows their way around and this generally means they are tainted because Washington is a corrupt city and it is difficult to find someone who is reasonably clean.
Then, if a president goes outside D.C, as Trump attempted, the candidate is not wise to the corrupt ways of Washington and is generally unable to do his job effectively. They might even be put through the ringer as was Gen. Flynn.
Finally, Trump himself had few D.C connections and initially made a series of bad choices as a result. Eventually he put together a decent team he felt comfortable with but the Democrats were more interested in impeaching him than doing something positive for the nation.
Were I an elected official I know it would be futile but I would not hesitate to seek Biden's impeachment for violation of his sworn oath to protect and defend our nation from external as well as as internal enemies. His handling of the Southern Border and the illegal immigrant invasion he has both encouraged, allowed and ignored, particularly as relates to the Covd pandemic, would be the basis of my charges.
I would not pull a Hillary and seek a false document. I would not go through a law firm to avoid my own involvement in a perfidious act. I would simply let the facts prevail.
In Washington, everyone seems to scratch their left ear with their right hand. Telling the truth seemingly escapes them . Power and re-election are their primal concerns. As long as this behavior prevails our ship of state will continue to take on water and eventually sink.
And:
We keep writing about the disaster on the border as if there was anyone in the Biden administration that actually cares about the atrocities happening there. The sad truth is nobody in the Biden administration cares as they are desperate for more captive votes.
Now we are learning that children in Biden’s sex-exploitation camps are not only sexually assaulted by other migrants but also by the army of pedophiles Biden has asked to “help” out at the border. And still nobody cares. Not to mention the tens of thousands of covid infected migrants that are being shipped in secrecy all around the country to infect the rest of us. How about helping them recover instead.
The truth is nobody cares in the Biden administration let alone Biden himself.
Fighting for Freedom,
Lawrence Cooper
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I know nothing about viruses, never took chemistry in school nor have I attended medical school but I do use my head and am fairly logical.
I believe getting the COVID Vaccination, as with most vaccinations, carries a risk because the Covid vaccine, as I understand it, has not been officially FDA approved, we have no long history of usage, probably effects certain people causing a negative re-action and even death in a few cases.
That said, it seems to work in varying degrees, may require a booster and appears to make any infection milder than would otherwise be the case. Therefore, citizens should vaccinate because it is better than not doing so and, they have a moral imperative to incorporate their fellow citizens in any such decision.
Once vaccinated individuals should be free to decide whether to mask or not and the government should stop with the conflicting nonsense until they have definitive scientific evidence that is more factual and dependable.
I know the mass media makes their living off perpetuating hysteria and they too should stop their own nonsense/vapid reporting. A certain amount of deaths will occur but we cannot shut down an entire nation. What we can do is stop funding Chinese laboratories, stop buying products made in China , shift our consumption of foreign goods to other nations and get tough with this renegade nation run by the CCP. Any debt they have purchased should be cancelled as compensation for the financial loss they have caused America.
We may or may not have a president whose son and family are China centric/beholden and they should be monitored accordingly.
It is time to return to capitalism, less regulated and freer markets and allow Americans the freedoms they expect and have been guaranteed. Anyone who seeks otherwise should become a candidate for being burned at the stake. Like the Colonel said, I will teach them democracy even if I have to kill everyone of them.
| Joe Felter On Countering China In Their Own Backyard |
| interview with Joseph Felter via Uncommon Knowledge In this wide-ranging conversation, Dr. Felter discusses the ever growing threat to Taiwan from the People’s Republic of China and the state of preparedness for such a conflict in the United States and the West. |
Finally:
This from The Landings for those who may not have seen:
A Message from the Board of Governors
Dear Landings Club Member-Owners,
Our Board of Governors and senior staff have monitored pandemic related data since the virus’ onset in early 2020. The sudden increase in infection rates has moved us to reengage with our medical advisory group and to consider reasonable actions in the context of the evolving trend. This message addresses our Club’s position and resulting actions related to increased COVID infection rates in our region and island as follows:
Guiding and limiting principles
Initial actions to be implemented
Future measures, if warranted
Call to action
Concluding thoughts
Guiding and limiting principles: As the impact of the pandemic affected our country in early 2020, our Club acted based on the best available information as provided by our medical advisory group and publicly available information. We sought to respond recognizing that our Club is fundamentally a social organization and therefore, a platform that could be a significant means of transmission in the absence of mitigating steps. It is with this broad context that we consider any changes to our operation. Of course, the effectiveness and availably of vaccines must also be considered. While not exhaustive, guiding and limiting principles follow:
Our Club has a responsibility to our community to help prevent the spread of the virus.
Our Club has a responsibility to maintain access to all the amenities and services our members expect from their club, even if services are modified.
Some risk will always exist – we cannot create a 100% risk-free environment.
We can limit risk through reasonable, accepted measures designed to reduce spread.
We will offer options allowing members to make decisions that are best for them, based on individual vulnerabilities and risk tolerance.
We believe our members are well informed of risks associated with COVID-19.
We respect our members and staff’s ability to make medical decisions that are best for them and their families.
With guiding and limiting principles discussed, we are focused on actions rather than the differing points of view on the vaccine efficacy, the cause of the surge and other topics better researched individually. We are monitoring the data and are taking steps in response to the trend.
Initial actions to be implemented: Our Board and senior staff considered the full spectrum of options from more extreme steps taken in March 2020 to our current operating model, reflecting normal or pre-COVID standards. We believe some steps are warranted – steps that could escalate if we believe local conditions and evidence supports it. Until such time, we will move forward with the following measures:
Masks are recommended for all and mandatory for the unvaccinated. While not governed by the City of Savannah, our policy mirrors the recent guidance from Mayor Johnson. Masks are required inside all government, early childhood, and transportation facilities. Masks are recommended for all while visiting indoor commercial establishments like retail stores and restaurants. Our Club is taking this a step further and requiring unvaccinated members and staff to mask up while indoors, at all times. Exceptions to this standard are while actively eating, drinking or for medical conditions aggravated by masks. Young members, two-years-old and under are also exempt. We are producing signage to serve as reminders for entry doors around our Club.
Modifications to Oakridge Wellness Center operations. The change that follows is consistent with our commitment to offer options that allow members to use our Club in a way that is most comfortable to them, based on personal vulnerability and risk tolerance. Effective Thursday August 5, masks will be mandatory for members and staff between 11am and 3pm. Further, every other cardio machine will be restricted to create distance between members while using the equipment. Masks are not required while using cardio equipment. During this time of day, traffic tends to be lighter, making it easier for members and guests to maintain distance between one another. The remainder of the day (before 11am and after 3pm), we will operate normally.
Staff vaccinations and protocols. Some have suggested mandatory vaccinations for all staff. We believe this is overreach particularly given that our local medical facilities, first responders and other high-risk occupations have not taken that step. That noted, over the weekend, we updated data on staff vaccinations and were pleased to find that two-thirds of our staff population is fully vaccinated. When we distinguished between indoor and outdoor staff, we learned that over 71% of indoor staff are fully vaccinated. This is over 20 percentage points higher than the Chatham County average. As a measure of appreciation for those who have faithfully served through the pandemic and have vaccinated, our Board has approved the allocation of resources to recognize those who took this step and to incent others to do likewise. Other clubs have found this effective, and we believe it is a reasonable measure to encourage the outcome we want.
While it is good that many staff have taken steps to vaccinate, unvaccinated indoor staff represent less than 95 individuals – that includes staff that are unlikely to encounter members like culinary, stewarding, and other heart of house team members. The sobering reminder is that our membership constitutes a much larger segment of the unvaccinated population on our island. We conservatively estimate 85% of our membership over age 11 are vaccinated. With nearly 6,200 adult members, assuming a 15% unvaccinated rate translates to number nearly ten times the number of unvaccinated staff. Our assumptions may be off by a bit, but we share this to illustrate the point and put staff risk in perspective because we have received messages from members imploring us to mandate staff vaccinations.
Future measures, if warranted: Our Board has directed staff to consider next steps, under the assumption the trend continues. Staff has given thought to measures between, and up to, full implementation of risk avoidance measures, like those executed this time last year. We believe there are interim steps to take before full implementation of such measures like increasing frequency of pop ups, modest expansion of mask protocols, reduction of capacity for Club events (concerts, Trivia etc.), removal of some bar stools, erecting an event tent, and other measures we hope to avoid. If warranted however, we are prepared to implement these measures.
Call to action: this is a tricky issue – one that could be misread as infringing on individual liberties (not our intent). Therefore, we reaffirm our belief that our members are well informed of risks associated with COVID-19 and that we respect our members’ and staff’s ability to make medical decisions that are best for them and their families. However, we ask unvaccinated members and staff to seriously consider the vaccine. The best news related to the recent increase in infection rates is that the impact on the vaccinated is comparatively mild, contributing to the substantially lower mortality rate. To maintain the recreational and social mission of our Club, it requires that we avoid large outbreaks. Large outbreaks could materially affect our ability to operate and ultimately restrict access to our Club for all. The best-known way to protect yourself and fellow members is to vaccinate.
Concluding thoughts: a few weeks ago, we believed the pandemic was behind us, but the resurgence has caused epidemiologists to believe that we will have to figure out how to live with the virus for the foreseeable future. If correct, our mission remains clear – it is to deliver all you have come to expect from The Landings Club – your Club - and to do it in a way that is easy, convenient and allows you to do the things you love to do with your families and dear friends, regardless of the surrounding circumstances. The first measures noted above are minor, representing nominal inconvenience to any individual or group. Our success as a club and community is a function of adherence to these measures. In other words, if you are unvaccinated, it is your choice, but we require that you honor the indoor mask mandate. Our staff abides by what is referred to as “The Landings Club Compass”. The Compass has five components, one of them being our “Member-Ready Basics”. Member Ready Basic number 9 states that “I am The Landings Club – upon the conduct of each of us, depends the fate of all of us” and I believe it is correct to say that so it is for our club and community. You are encouraged to first take measures to protect yourself as makes sense for your individual condition. However, our Board of Governors believes we have an obligation to one another and ask you to be guided accordingly.
This has been a remarkable 17 month stretch since the initial lockdowns were implemented. Our Club and community figured out how to operate with nominal disruption – acting based on available and evolving information. We will act now as we did then – evolving, balancing safety and access for our members and sustainable employment for our staff.
With appreciation for your support,
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