Story at-a-glance
- The visible part of the current nosedive toward totalitarianism began in 2001 with the introduction of the TSA and the normalization of harassing travelers at the airport
- “War on terror” was also used to justify a transition to more “secure” IDs, paving the way to more surveillance and control
- Today, the middle class in the West is under attack, and “consumption interventions” are being designed with the goal of curbing the pesky westerners’ habits of buying what they want
- Even worse, the medicine is being redesigned as a system of algorithmic control, with an accent on shaming and compliance
- Euthanasia is being promoted more and more as an “easy” problem-solving choice
It started with the airports. It was the airports where we were first turned into pawns of the state. Well, it started in earnest much earlier and much deeper — but visibly, in our lifetime, it started with the post-911 airports and, after the Patriot Act, the Aviation and Transportation Security Act of 2001. It was the war on terror that was used to justify the transformation of freedom into the marching orders of a budding totalitarian state.
For many of us, the memory of flying as free citizens before 2001 is all too distant now — but I do remember, vaguely, not being barked at by people in uniforms, not being treated like a shoeless prisoner, and not being told to partially undress and proceed into a mildly radioactive booth to be screened for suspicious objects — oh, the sweet memories of joyful travels before 2001! Did they really exist, or did we merely dream them up?
Predictably, today, under the new abnormal, the airports remain a bastion of unfreedom where travelers are often treated like the property of the people in uniforms.
Pro tip for the aspiring state and corporate totalitarians: If you like power and stomping freedom, just criminalize things like walking around barefaced — based on … nothing scientific but merely because you said so.
That’s the real cult power. You cannot call yourself accomplished S&M cult leaders until you successfully dictate what people wear on their own faces or put into their own bodies. But I think you already know this pro tip without me telling you, right? You’ve been trying with fervor!
The war on terror paved the way to the panopticon we are in today and the “Real ID” that is slowly (gradually, then suddenly) morphing into biometric digital ID.
According to the Huffington Post, the REAL ID Act, passed by Congress in 2005, “enacted the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation that the federal government ‘set standards for the issuance of sources of identification, such as driver’s licenses.’” The deadlines for the requirement has been pushed back a couple of times, and currently, it is supposed to go into effect in 2025.
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