This isn’t about me, it’s about you. It’s about what The System can do to you if it wants; and if it can be done, it will be done.
It does begin with me, in a small way, but the implications are big. A short while ago I was emailed by my energy provider to say I needed to fit smart meters. Having made it clear that I wanted to be the last customer in the country to have a smart meter, I then got a message that someone would be round to fit it soon. I exploded with a how-dare you etc.
The complaints department replied:
‘The metering appointment booked for the 11th July shows booked by Customer using anonymous URL. This suggests that you have booked this appointment yourself I am sorry if this is not the case?’
I didn’t do it. I don’t know who did or why but I’m not after any particular individual or company and I don’t want any speculation; the point is about our vulnerability in the Information Age.
Daily we give away our data privacy, or entrust our data to corporations, to obtain services online. Regularly we read of breaches and abuses; and not just read: our bank account was hacked a few years ago and we still haven’t a clue how our details were obtained (we don’t even do online banking!)
If criminals are bad, governments can be worse, because they have far more power and their motivation is nothing so crass as mere financial greed. Peter Hitchens has raised the case of a man he doesn’t much like, a video blogger called Graham Phillips, who was placed on the UK Government’s sanctions list last summer.
‘As far as I know, he is the first British citizen to be treated in this way. His assets have been frozen. His bank accounts are blocked. He also cannot pay those to whom he owes money.’
Consider: those bank accounts do not belong to the Government. This is the State using private corporations to victimise its citizen. We saw the same last year with the protesting Canadian truckers - and the people who supported them.
That sort of collusion is characteristic, some might say, of a form of fascism; or communism if you consider similar actions in China; let’s settle on ‘totalitarianism.’ Yet this is the allegedly liberal West.
Let’s come back to the smart meter. Not only can it tell outsiders how much energy you use and when, it can be used remotely to disconnect you for non-payment. Who is to say that a dissident might not have his heating and lighting cut off if the government wishes to sanction him? What law prevents the State from doing this? How about your water supply?
How about your smartphone, used by so many for everything including shopping and travel? Imagine switching it on one day to find the screen saying ‘no service’ and all your data in the Cloud frozen, unable to be migrated to another provider? Do you think that could not possibly happen? The precedent has been set already with private banking services.
We have a choice: to see the threat and become completely obedient and quiet as mice, or to remain members of the Awkward Squad; irascible, difficult, sometimes unreasonable - but free.
This is the reason governments around the world are trying to destroy cryptocurrency and at the same time promote their digital currency. They fear what they cannot control.
Digital currency through governments will be the end of freedom. As you pointed out, they can do it now, but digital will be used to control masses.
Only problem is that obtaining cryptocurrency has become expensive, but is doable.
Do you know the outcome of this as the article to which you refer is almost a year old?