Civilization’s New Trajectory, Part 2
From Feudalism to Class Warfare to Socialism to Techno-Fascism
With Draconian fervor, Brown Coats (storm troopers of the SA), Black Coats (SS), and Blue Coats (police) dominated Nazi Germany. Theirs morphed into a culture of surveillance whereby squads of police hunted down all evidence of resistance. Due process fell by the wayside, as did basic freedoms of press and speech. Elections became farces; mail was intercepted, books burned. Never having been formally charged, many were arrested under protective custody.
Swelling military presence and mass shootings backed threats that “whoever lifts his hand against the State must die for it.” All were compelled to “self-coordinate” in line with National Socialism’s guiding slogan: “The public will transcends interests of the individual.” Within a violent culture of death, rabid national unity took on dark religious overtones, yet the German populace at large failed to push back, even on the Night of the Long Knives, otherwise known as Hitler’s Purge.
Resulting in forfeiture of basic rights, public humiliation, and name-calling, the Jewish “problem” provided a handy scapegoat in Hitler’s Germany. Today’s counterpart in America is a vast right-wing conspiracy of ostensibly narrow-minded Christians standing “in need” and “in the way” of “creating mankind anew.” A 2009 Department of Homeland Security report described “rightwing extremists” as individuals and groups “that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely.” These sweeping generalizations prompted initial uproar, but no more.
How easily we forget and, then, ignore government action that identifies, demonizes, and disables anyone deemed a potential ‘threat.’“ Apparently not learning from history, 21st century America is repeating it. Increasingly, citizens forfeit basic freedoms and constitutional rights ensured by the founders. Accepting that evolution is true (and creation, a myth), they misguidedly trust in man’s ability, through technology, to shape the direction of human evolution.
A Cultural-Spiritual Framework for Civilization’s New Trajectory
With computer-enhanced, godlike meta-intelligence, the New Man hopes to free himself of biological restraints and, then, find his rightful fit in an anticipated socialistic utopia. Sliding core values bridge the techno-spiritual gap between trans- (or post-) humanism and technocratic global governance for which this New Man is suited.
• Feudalism Begets Socialism (Egalitarianism)
Followers of Marx and Engels viewed the feudal stage as a necessary prerequisite for emerging socialism. Broadly defined, feudalism describes Europe’s medieval system of structuring society around relationships derived from "haves” (those holding land) in exchange for service of “have-nots.” Fomented class warfare pits “slave owner against slave, landlord against tenant, corporation against worker, rich against poor.” As a result, forced redistribution of wealth, if not revolution, “levels the playing field.” Egalitarianism – i.e., naked socialism – provides a transition stage between capitalism (free market; open competition) and communism (common ownership of production means; absence of social classes).
• Pseudo-Egalitarianism Begets Nepotism
Collectivist society demands an oligarchy – namely, government by an exceptional ruling elite guaranteed the right to rule over less gifted masses. In Marx’s view, “democratization” means that government allows certain individuals to partake in some discussions relating to a particular policy proposal, but only those who support that policy may participate.
• Nepotism Inspires Techno-Elitism
The NSF/DOC-sponsored report, “Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance,” and the final report of the President’s Council on Bioethics, “Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness,” showcase human enhancement through technology. To that end, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology successfully implanted a false memory into the brain of a mouse, manipulated to accept as reality what never happened. Given this scientific milestone, researchers see no end to possibilities for reactivating, then tweaking human memory – or implanting altogether new “memories."1 Already on the table are plans to link local groups of machine-enhanced individuals into "a global collective intelligence.”
Presently, merging human consciousness with machines and brain-to-brain connections are deemed doable. Notwithstanding frightening ethical implications, futurists fully intend to apply exponential technologies toward mapping/ electrically shocking the brain, harnessing the subconscious for accelerated performance, detecting emotions, fashioning virtual realities and synthetic genes, and equipping humanity to flourish in space.
• Techno-Elitists Enforce Techno-Fascism
Control is the endgame, so what better place to start than with energy? Encompassing generation, distribution, and consumption of electrical power (also natural gas and water), the Smart Grid is an initiative using advanced digital technology to redesign the power grid. Keep in mind that installing Smart Grids in every house and business (everywhere) effectively removes control from consumers and forfeits it to central government. Consider, too, that fascism is a totalitarian state promoting “strength in unity” to displace whatever is perceived as weak. Accordingly, the Smart Grid exploits the “crisis of capitalism.” Instead of fiat currencies, the new energy-based accounting system uses “energy certificates,” or Carbon Currency, to control local government units (LGU).
The North American geographic region, or Technate (Canada, Mexico, and the U.S.), falls under an umbrella of common control whereby citizens periodically receive equal allocations of available energy that expire if not used in timely fashion. While maintaining full visibility of all data within the Smart Grid, even down to individual households, the Federal Administration sets national, regional, and local distribution and consumption policies to ensure the “fair share” of available energy, gas, and water.
Effectively robbing Peter to pay Paul, surrounding systems bypass customer intervention and automatically subsidize any shortage of energy in neighboring systems. Supporting an entirely new, resource-based economic system, NOT (Network of Things) technology features wireless, two-way communication among interactive appliances, digital meters, and automated substations. In reality, what’s deemed best for the common good is but a cover for political decisions that, not only decimate personal privacy rights, but also monitor and control delivery and consumption of green resources.
New York Times bestselling authors and veteran investigative journalists, Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliott have painstakingly unveiled the Obama Administration’s second-term national energy policy that, in the end, will permanently remake America into a government-dominated socialist state in which “the America of equal opportunity for all, constitutionally limited government, economic freedom, and personal liberty will become a distant memory.” Unless, that is, concerned citizens purposely interrupt civilization’s new trajectory. Reflective of Bonhoeffer’s Germany, “at such a time as this,” we do well to heed the good pastor’s wisdom: “Not to speak is to speak,” and “not to act is to act.” With the ball in our court, what’s it going to be, America?