Totalitarianism - 1984 is Here

A Rambling observation by Maviarab

I was watching television last night and it suddenly occurred to me that the whole idea of a totalitarian government had happened.

Thats right, in my opinion 1984 has truly arrived in the here and now, meaning, present time.

Over here in the UK, there is a new advert out regarding healthy living, better eating and more exercise. In 3 hours of television, the advert was aired over 10 times.

Now I find that quite phenomenal. I then got thinking about this, and adding other adverts to the equation of the likes of anti smoking, drinking awareness, various tax adverts, wearing seat belts and many more I can not recall right at this moment, I would say at a good guess, one in two adverts here in the UK have been made by the government to either tell you to do something, or as the case may be, not to do something.

I thought about this for a while and a shiver went down my back. Like the recent terrorism attacks across the world, if you share the (now) common view that they were arranged by their respective governments and nothing to do with some suntanned simple robed people from the desert, what would be the perfect tool for suppressing the people? Yes, the perfect tool for suppressing the people is in itself, terror.

Now, equate that to a totalitarian state/country, what would be the best way to implement this very form of control? To me, it would be by slowly implementing this form of hierarchy in government without the people actually realising its even happening.

Now at this point you are probably laughing, and good for you as I probably am mad. But, I ask all of you as I have many other people in my daily life, do you truly believe your free? Define freedom maybe? Of course there are the odd individuals who have so much money it matters not, but is a life where you are forced to work to pay out taxes and keep others accustomed to the life they have, often leaving little if anything at all for yourself, bombarded by messages from the state on what you should and shouldn't, can and can't do really being free? Or are we really slaves to governments that have become so powerful they are almost beyond redemption?

And the beauty of it all, here in the UK anyway (I know not how other countries operate) is that all these adverts of control, are paid for by taxes, that you work for, to pay the government, to leave yourself with nothing. Its beautiful isn't it? Work, be a good citizen, pay your dues so that they can control you all the more.

This then takes us into the future. Will the science fiction electric cars that drive you to where you want to go really be for our health and safety, or part of a more sinister reason, perhaps because those in power no longer trust us to drive ourselves there?

In China, there is already now a law that prohibits couples from having more than one child without a special license. Now think about the actual ramifications of this. Humans are so wonderful in their brilliance, we are extending the average lifespan every year with our technological advancements, yet in China, because of this and the fact that as a species we breed like insects, they are introducing laws to limit the number of humans. Just exactly how long do you really think it will be before our respective governments ban us from having children altogether, as we are deemed not responsible enough to decide when to have a child, and more importantly, even look after it. Will there be huge farms out the Nevada desert where our children are taken to be looked after, educated (brainwashed) and then given back to us when they 16?

And then comes AI. I think they summed it up perfectly in the film 'The Matrix' when Morpheus states that 'we marveled at our own brilliance', and I like the sarcastic nature of that statement. We as humans, have always devised things to help us, make our lives easier. As a consequence, that actually hinders us more than it helps, as we are no longer needed in many aspects. Take the car plant as an example. 75 years ago, most were made by hand, carefully crafted. Now, most of the work is done by a machine. Is it intelligent? Well, that would really depend on your definition, and defining intelligence is not easy in itself. The fact that it carries out functions and jobs might suggest that yes it is, but then it has been programed by a human to do that job. So then maybe not. But is it as simple as that? Will AI just be there to 'serve' us while we in turn 'serve' a higher authority, or will AI actually be its own entity, free to do what it wants (we are not going to get into the ramifications of that here).

If it will be to purely serve us, to help us, it will in all probability, once again hinder us all the more. Why pay for a cleaner to come to your house twice a week, when a machine/robot/whatever can do it faster, better and wont ask where its bonus is? Therefore, naturally and logically, the more machines we have still, the more people will find themselves with nothing to do. With more people sat at home writing drivel like this (showing my gsoh there) the less money the government will have.

When that happens, what will our non opposed totalitarian leaders do then? Well, in my opinion, just as Gordon Brown announced recently, they will create jobs for the people, just so that they no longer need to look after them, oh and of course, if they are working, the government is getting their cut too.

Now, what other science fiction film does that remind you of? Too much sci-fi? Too much time on my hands? Too much coffee and over imagination?

Maybe...just maybe.