It’s Just A Little Chip

Back in the mid 1980s I was at a party one summer evening, on break from college.  The beer was good, and a few friends that I attended high school with were there. We were all chillin having a good time. During the course of the evening I met a friend of a friend, whose name I forgot, but he was one of those born again Christians. I do not care for religious fanatics, but this guy’s pro-Christ temperament seemed low key enough and tolerable. That, plus I was too drunk to get up and walk away.

Many born again Christians have a fascination with The Revelation. This is the last book in the Bible that metaphorically describes the upcoming signs of mankind’s demise. The born again guy at the party and I got talking, and he was telling me about the future of The Beast, or also known as The Mark, which I have also heard about before from other holy rollers. So we talked further and he explained to me that the Beast is where a person has something under his skin that can be scanned electronically to extract information about you: everything, in fact. He said your medical data, finances, and ability to pay for something (essentially replacing the credit card) will all be extracted from the Mark you have. That and more.

I thought to myself that this concept would make a great horror science fiction film. And it did so in the 1993 movie Demolition Man, but in fact it went further as we now see life imitating art. The above video is worth viewing all the way through. The RFID, or perhaps shall we call it The Beast, is part of Obama’s health care plan. And whereas the implementation of the chip being placed inside a human is not mandated as written, nonetheless the way the law is stated allows the specific operatives in charge of the program to decide whether or not the chip should be required. In short, the law is written vaguely enough to appear harmless at the same time giving full draconian control to the Matrix.

I also want to state here that in no way to I am trying to indirectly coerce anyone to becoming religious or repenting. The “Are you saved?” Christians have, in my opinion, done the most damage to the church than anyone. You can include me among the people who avoid those zealots. But to their credit that they seem to have successfully foreseen something that appears to be manifesting today.

The issue is not this new technology per se, nor is it the fact that the government wants to implement it, nor is it the fact that the chip could evolve be more invasive then simply providing medical data. The issue is John Q. Public’s complacent “Yeah it could be abused really really bad, but think of all the good it could do” attitude. Those of you who have studied the Roman Empire are aware of the concept of ‘bread and circus,’ which states: keep the people stupid and entertained and you control Rome. Today’s bread and circus is extremely sophisticated via smartphones, social media, and all related technologies therein. So it comes as no surprise that one does not see an uproar about all of this.

We are at a cross roads. Lets assume for a moment that the initial chip will only be medical data. But if this generation allows this RFID version 1.0 be implanted, the next generation could be sold on a version of the chip to include say, one’s driver’s license and medical data. The following generation after that could be convinced to enable the chip to pay for things, as well as drivers license data, and medical records. A few more generations and versions down the road who knows? Perhaps the chip will be able to deactivate your life at the push of a button. I would like to think that this could never happen but yesterday’s Orwellian fictional stories are becoming today’s realities.

If the chip is implanted and mandated then I guess we’ll have to rent Demolition Man so we will know what is expected of us.

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