Illusion of Security

By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host

It's starting to feel like we are in The Matrix.  Granted, I don't believe that the machines have taken over, or that we are being used as batteries as we scurry along in a make-believe world concocted somewhere in a computer generated illusion; but, like The Matrix, things are definitely not as they seem.  

We know the enemies of liberty cheat.  We know they lie.  We know they rig elections.  And, we know they infiltrate, which brings us back to cheating and lying.  They have deceptively created a world that isn't real.  Nothing is what it seems.  But, for some reason, we keep arguing with them as if their delusion is true.

They have accomplished the construction of their brave new world using Orwellian tactics.  Sure, in literary classics like Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World", George Orwell's "1984", and Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" we recognize a reality that we know to be true in today's political mess.  Government surveillance can be used for evil, authoritarian governments don't have your best interests in mind no matter how many times they tell you otherwise, and technology simply opens up a Pandora's Box tool chest full of all kinds of diabolical toys for the tyrants in the world to use against us.  Sure, these totalitarian truths are understood by everyone, and the tyrants who wield them know that you know they are evil tools that are used mostly during eras of enslavement, but the core truths inside those dystopian novels by Huxley, Orwell, and Bradbury are not really about those things in actuality.  Those books explain to us how the rulers of the world masterfully achieve these things by throwing them into operation in plain sight, and then through the use of language convinces an entire society that it is all in their best interest, each tyrannical scheme is for the safety of humanity, and the common good of the community.

Language can convince you of anything if the magician's shape-changer spell is working properly.

We are told that we are a global community, and technology is moving us into another evolutionary phase that is so wonderful that once you get a taste of it you will be more than happy to comply.  You will own nothing and be happy.  You will worry about nothing because government will provide everything, even if it means using new 3D printing technology to print you a new vital organ.  You won't need to leave the safety of your home, either, because thanks to technology, the internet, and flying drones, everything can be ordered from home and delivered to you.  And, you won't feel bad about having more possessions than the poor underserved folks out there, either, because nobody will own anything.  How can you be a greedy person with too many things if the ownership of possessions is phased out of existence?  That way, the poor won't be poor because there will be no rich (save for a few benevolent rulers, of course).  Doesn't it sound grand?

Ignorance is bliss, and during your bliss they will be happy to accommodate your fears at every turn.  You will be subjugated and obfuscated and you will happily accept it.  All of your fellow subjects will resist resisting oppression because of their boundless happiness in a world where they know that they are being taken care of by such a wonderful, fair, give everyone an equal fair share, global government system.  You will be happy too; especially if you can forget your fears of what might happen if you dared to refuse to comply with a smile.

Some of your fellow happy subjects will be so indoctrinated that they will champion bondage, calling it true safety in a world full of cats seeking to eat canaries.  

Orwell's "Newspeak" is already in full force.  

Guns are dangerous so we can only truly be safe, and we can only truly protect our children (which really aren't ours, they belong to public education and the system...but I digress) if all guns are eventually outlawed and removed from society.  That way, we will be totally safe when only government and the most resourceful or connected criminals of the world are the only ones with access to firearms.

Disease is all around us, too, so government must protect us from that, too.  Being safe at home, unable to gather together in dangerous groups for worship, fellowship, or domestic terrorism strategy meetings of any kind, is truly the safe way to ensure we don't all die from the various viruses seeking to kill us.  Wear your mask, shut up, and hide in solitary confinement because the only way to keep us all safe and free from harm is to only allow people we trust, like the ruling elite, to assemble together behind closed doors to scheme and plan.

Even words and thoughts of "misinformation" can spoil the sanctity of a safe and well-taken-care-of society.  The plans have become so well orchestrated that even our own neighbors are getting to the point of chastising those who don't follow the approved speech protocols.  We've even gotten to the point where in California the legislature attempted to pass a law allowing public schools to grill students so as to find out which parents have guns in the house.  Surveillance cameras are being installed in cities around the country, for your own safety, of course.  When I asked a particular city council member in the City of Temecula about concerns regarding "Big Brother," he responded, "You mean the television show?"

We are no longer people.  Babies are fetuses, and God knows what most people identify themselves as.  Recently, I even came across a news story about how a judge, for the purpose of ensuring environmental protections, labeled bumble bees as also being "fish".  So, in a world where boys can be girls, girls can be boys, some folks can be neither, and bees can be fish, why can't I change the identity of my rifle from a firearm to a cordless hold puncher?

Of course, even the dangerous thoughts I am now committing to paper computer screen will be seen by some deranged folks out there as being dangerous, and possibly racist.

Society's latest villains in white hat clothing don't seek to merely take control, to gain power, and silence dissent.  The goal is to make resistance and dissent completely impossible; and for members of society to assist them in the enforcement of the otherwise impossible to enforce endeavor.  You must not only say you agree with their madness, they must fully believe you when you say you are a compliant member of the collective community.  And then, just to prove you are trustworthy, you need to start alerting the officials in charge of anyone whose minds are in dissent.

In 1984 the protagonist "Winston Smith" is at one point being reeducated.  A party member torturing him holds up his hand with four fingers extended.  "How many fingers do you see?"  Smith replied, “Four! Four! What else can I say? Four!” After the infliction of excruciating pain the party member keeps asking until Smith finally claims to see five fingers.  The scene's antagonist insists that saying “Five” is not enough; “‘No, Winston, that is no use. You are lying. You still think there are four.”

You must not only say institutional racism exists when it doesn't, that you and everyone else can be whatever gender they claim to be and demand any pronoun they want to claim to have, and that words mean nothing because they are simply an emanation of an evil white male patriarchy who wants to convince you that liberty and prosperity can actually exist through evil and maniacal concepts such as individualism and the possession of your own property; you must believe it.

Politicians lie, collectivists infiltrate, and the world is not what it seems as a result.  

Do you really know who to support and consider the bad guy in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict going on right now?  Is there a bad guy and a good guy?  Who's lying, and who's covering things up?  Do you really know?  Are we supposed to even truly care? 

In your own groups how many people that you trust are actually trustworthy?  Talk to candidates about shenanigans inside their campaign by people they thought they had properly vetted.  Are we sure there was, or was not, any fraud in any of the elections?  Do we dare show any dissent against the rulers who say that any such comments about the possibility of fraud is conspiracy theory?  Can we even trust our own pastors as the churches begin to fly six-color rainbow flags and hand out Black Lives Matter paraphernalia?  

We must remember that even paranoia can be a tool used by tyrants.

How close is shutting down a social media account because someone dared to say something not accepted and approved by the rulers and their minions to snuffing someone out in the street?  How close are stay at home orders to keeping people under control by sending them to internment camps?  At what point is the fine line between "common good" and "evil tyranny" crossed?

Language has provided prison bars for us in the name of "hate speech", “alternative facts,” and “domestic extremists.”  They have no need to jail us or torture us.  All they need to do is use language that promises us our safety, and the common good, and we are willing to silence ourselves, and imprison ourselves inside our own homes.  All they must do is use language to dehumanize us, and convince us to comply with their tyranny in the name of safety and the good of the community.  Turn in your guns, lock your doors, and shut your mouth.  Don't worry, the system will protect you from the monsters who lurk about out there somewhere.  You can trust your rulers.  They have only your best interest at heart, and the common good in their intentions.

They will be benevolent masters.  They promise.  You can believe them, because their words mean something.

But, be a wise citizen-subject.  Don't disagree no matter how much you want to.  Resistance, after all, will be met with imprisonment, or a nice ride to a reeducation camp.  You know, for the sake of everyone's safety and security, and the common good, of course.

Such is the game plan of history's most successful authoritarian regimes.  Violence is not necessary.  One needs only to control the information, control the language, and convince you that tyranny is in your best interest.  It's the patriotic thing to believe and comply with, after all.  You know, in order to keep everyone safe.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary