[Originally posted on Facebook, Tuesday May 3, 2016]

Have you read Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932), George Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty Four (1949) , Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (1953), or seen the movies, Brazil (1985) and Idiocracy (2006)? What about books by Douglas Adams, Isaac Asimov, Alfred Bester, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, Frank Herbert, Robert A. Heinlein, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Jules Verne, H. G. Wells? Some of you have. It’s likely your children have not. We have to protect our children from independent thought, wherever possible - or so I’m told.

When some of these books were written, they were perhaps viewed as flights of dystopian fantasy. In the space of one generation, our world is fast becoming what these men beheld. We increasingly need to produce identification to work, to travel, to make purchases or to contract. Our movements, and spending habits, and personal preferences are increasingly tracked, and not just by those who would find this information interesting, or profitable.

We are seeing the Mesozoic imperatives to inform on others, apparently about anything we see fit, “If you see something, say something”. We are being discouraged from saying anything that might inform, discomfort, or offend the lowest common denominator. We consume more, and think less. Seriously, who has time these days to think or be informed, when a full work day and a sale of the next, great i-thing, awaits?

Not so long ago, this would have been the stuff of conspiracy theories. Sadly these days, it’s just the normal state of things. If you’re over 40 years-old, you may have noticed a familiar pattern. You are invited to provide personal information to make the “process” easier, or safer, or smoother. If enough people willingly comply, the requirements are seamlessly integrated into the “new and improved” process. You used to have rights, now you have privileges. What you could formerly acquire freely, is now something for which you need to pay. Ask the average person for intimate personal details, and they’ll gladly provide them. Hell, they’ll post their travel plans, bowel movements, life histories, qualifications, sexual preferences and affiliations on social media sites without prompting. They do this under the guise that, “They have nothing to hide”.

We may have nothing to hide, but we still have a few things left to protect. The last vestiges of our privacy and freedom to speak freely, are among these. You’d better exercise your options while you can, because they’re going fast. Alas, no one under thirty seems to value these things, and the opinions of anyone over forty are generally not considered relevant, unless you can press the snooze button by looking younger or still being considered “pretty”. When you think about it (I know you can) our society has been encouraging the elongation of adolescence well into adulthood. You frequently hear people say that so-and-so cannot be expected to know better…“he’s only 30”. By the time you reach the age of forty, no one cares about your opinion. In most cases you’re no longer considered relevant. That’s a fairly narrow window of effectiveness in the grand scheme of things.

Some of the things I see and read would be funny, if they weren’t so sad. While everything that protects us is being slowly whittled away, “safe spaces” are being manufactured for our emotional comfort. The irony! Conversations regarding truth and facts, if even considered acceptable topics, must be delivered in the most politically correct way possible, so as not to alienate or hurt anyone’s feelings. There are terrorists everywhere, apparently. Men are the new enemies of women, or so some would have us believe.

The term “divide and conquer” comes to mind. Stupid is the new smart. Mediocre is the new excellent.

Anyway, I’m just rambling, touching on general topics you already, or should already, know. If any of these things hasn’t occurred to you, you might start by easing yourself into the topics by watching George Carlin videos and writings for his last ten years. Sometimes hard facts are easier to take while you’re being entertained.

Otherwise, start reading. The list awaits. If you “see something” (relevant in these books), “say something” to someone else. That’s the only useful reason I can think of to use that saying.