My thought is that repressive legislation in Western countries is usually introduced incrementally, so that people don't see the future implications of it. Nowadays, governments tend to be more blatant about it, because they now know they can get away with it. People in general are amazingly supine and seem to mindlessly accept new rules and regulations, however silly or even damaging to themselves and society in general.
Lesson 2.
Alarm bells have been ringing for me for some time, but not yet for most people, unfortunately. It's clear where we could be headed. Western populations could actually enslave themselves. One possibility is digital currency and a social credit system similar to that in China. According to videos I've seen, the Chinese population simply accept this. Not that they have any real choice if they want to avoid persecution.
Do we want this to happen to us? Do we want to be treated like mindless automatons?
It has been said that a population gets the government it deserves. What seems to be happening in Western countries is that naive and witless populations (apart from a tiny majority) are governed by self - serving, hypocritical nincompoops.
Lesson 3.
It has been reported that some children in the US have reported their parents to the authorities because the parents have protested peacefully against certain aspects of modern education in state schools.
Almost unbelievable; real "1984" stuff.
Lesson 4.
Personally, my trust in any authorities, including large corporations, Government, politicians and their representatives in any field, particularly medicine, has evaporated. I don't trust the NHS and even have doubts about GP's and nurses I'm sorry to say. They have to follow procedures dictated from on high.
Unfortunately, in these times we need to be particularly observant and vigilant.
"It couldn't happen here" is a dangerously complacent thought. We tend in the West to think that authoritarianism is something external - it's 'over there', 'in the past' or the behaviour of power-hungry others. In fact, the desire to control others - whether directly or by proxy as many do when they align with repressive authorities - is feature of human psychology at our current stage of development. We can move on from that, but we'd better hurry up or it will be too late.
Thank you for this. I learnt a lot about recent Albanian history just from reading your piece here.
Lesson 1.
My thought is that repressive legislation in Western countries is usually introduced incrementally, so that people don't see the future implications of it. Nowadays, governments tend to be more blatant about it, because they now know they can get away with it. People in general are amazingly supine and seem to mindlessly accept new rules and regulations, however silly or even damaging to themselves and society in general.
Lesson 2.
Alarm bells have been ringing for me for some time, but not yet for most people, unfortunately. It's clear where we could be headed. Western populations could actually enslave themselves. One possibility is digital currency and a social credit system similar to that in China. According to videos I've seen, the Chinese population simply accept this. Not that they have any real choice if they want to avoid persecution.
Do we want this to happen to us? Do we want to be treated like mindless automatons?
It has been said that a population gets the government it deserves. What seems to be happening in Western countries is that naive and witless populations (apart from a tiny majority) are governed by self - serving, hypocritical nincompoops.
Lesson 3.
It has been reported that some children in the US have reported their parents to the authorities because the parents have protested peacefully against certain aspects of modern education in state schools.
Almost unbelievable; real "1984" stuff.
Lesson 4.
Personally, my trust in any authorities, including large corporations, Government, politicians and their representatives in any field, particularly medicine, has evaporated. I don't trust the NHS and even have doubts about GP's and nurses I'm sorry to say. They have to follow procedures dictated from on high.
Unfortunately, in these times we need to be particularly observant and vigilant.
All the best, Zorgus.
"It couldn't happen here" is a dangerously complacent thought. We tend in the West to think that authoritarianism is something external - it's 'over there', 'in the past' or the behaviour of power-hungry others. In fact, the desire to control others - whether directly or by proxy as many do when they align with repressive authorities - is feature of human psychology at our current stage of development. We can move on from that, but we'd better hurry up or it will be too late.
Alex I follow you on Twitter and have just rediscovered your Substack.
Really great essay -- it's prompted me to get your "travella".
Thanks so much. Nice to hear that Twitter still 'works', now and then!