The Need to Declare Independence…Again
October 21, 2015
TimeWatch Editorial
Self sufficiency has always been the better lifestyle. Providing for your family, teaching your children, finding a quiet location for housing, all these are admirable goals. City life, with all its dependencies, has always meant that those who live under these circumstances would never really be able to grow their own food, or create their own water and power resources. The atmosphere of nature’s clean air, the sound of birds, the simple quietness of a starlit night, provides a powerful backdrop of peace and calm.
The Garden of Eden was just such a place. The beauty of the earth in its newness, filled with everything that could ever be needed for sustenance and joy. It is therefore rather telling that the first city built was directly associated with Cain, the first murderer. The crowding together of people, controlled by the authorities of the circumscribed area, was indeed the exact opposite of the intended joy of the open and independent spaces. Clearly, the dependency has always been intended to be a controlling mechanism.
Recently, the loss of privacy has become evident, primarily because of the unconcealed efforts to gather every possible piece of information on every living individual on the planet. Prior to this however, the concealed collection of information has always existed. The rudimentary reliance upon “the grid”, that is, the utilities and services provided have always been an incredibly thunderous description of who you are and what you do. For years these rather simple dependencies have done the sort of work that has kept the ‘authorities’ well informed.
Even those ‘services’ which provide ‘security’ for homeowners have quietly kept track of your personal life in the sort of intrusive way that, were this done by an individual looking through your window, would have been considered criminal. Yet we have been persuaded that they ‘protect’ us. Of course, they inform us that someone is IN the house, and they are able to supply an image of the individual. It never occurs to us that we are as vulnerable to their surveillance as the burglar they recorded.
There are some individuals who have grown tired of the hassle of city dwelling, and desire the peace and tranquility of the wide open spaces. Some have gone a step further and chosen independent living, ‘off the grid.’ Suddenly, we are discovering that satellites and drones are not the first line of surveillance, but ‘the grid’ is. Suddenly, states and counties are stating that living ‘off the grid’ is illegal. (See TimeWatch Daily Articles 10-21-2015)
Suddenly, it is as clear as crystal. The arc of surveillance is complete. The ‘grid’ provides a permanent geographical location, a usage profile, and a mathematical assessment of your activity. All this includes a daily record of energy used, which might indicate your presence or absence, and of course a myriad of other computer evaluated variables. The question now must be, what happens to those who refuse to comply? Will they be labeled and fall under even more debilitating surveillance protocols?
Cameron A. Bowen.
