New fences

I forget what these people are called. They have a name and a specific description of what they do to deserve the name. I am sure I have the note somewhere handy near the top of all the useless information I store haphazardly within the confines of what pretends to be my mind.

Futurists? ........... Maybe.

Regardless, I am fascinated by the interaction of random events and socio/political/economic evolutions and revolutions that combine to create whatever present we are living at any given time. I have the deepest respect for the people who can pick out the under the radar current events and affairs that will matter at some point in the future.

Yeah, it's easy to say that everything matters. There is no one thing or several things that create by themselves the flow of the future. But there are turning points, tipping points, and points of no return. There have to be. We decided they existed, so there it is.

What brought this up for me was when I read an article on California sex offenders. Not the settled down sex offenders, but the ones who are homeless. Apparently because of "Jessica's Law", no sex offender can live within 1/2 mile of a school, park, or playground. I guess limiting their living choices has caused a sharp increase in the numbers of homeless sex offenders.

It seems that the state of California decided that in order to make Halloween safe for the kiddies, they would round up all homeless sex offenders in a central location during those prime trick or treating hours.

I won't get into the ethical aspects of this round up. Lord knows, "Law & Order - SUV" has beaten the subject to death. What I wondered was how the cops were going to do it. I mean if they are homeless, does that not mean their whereabouts is unknown?

Apparently not. All convicted sex offenders in California are required to wear GPS tracking devices. Corralling them was easy-peasy.

Again, though the subject screams for it, I refrain from commenting on the ethical aspect of this. What my mind thought of first was George Orwell. And then Anthony Burgess. Both Brits who saw this coming many years ago.

I then thought of our planet's population recently hitting 7 billion.

And naturally the first thing that popped into my mind was the notion of smaller government and how stupid is that notion. By necessity, government intervention in our lives has to increase along with the increase in population. More people means the various governments will do what they feel is necessary to organize and direct their individual populations. If they don't, then regime change is inevitable, whether instigated internally or externally. And what is a government's first priority? No, it is not its people. It is its own survival.

In order to keep the teeming masses in line, various agencies will try different methods. Slavery, the Inquisition, and death camps during WWll are but a few of the methods thought up by governments to control their people. Fences, walls, and incarceration all are devices a government will pull out if it feels its survival depends on it.

Now that humanity has evolved to the point where we are not collectively as dumb as we look, governments are being forced to come up with more subtle ways to keep us in line. It seems we are now hard into a period of history where the focus will be to subjugate us without most of us noticing until it is too late. And even for those of us who do notice, the efforts will be understated, misstated, and appear on the surface a good idea at the time.

The Patriot Act stands out as the perfect example. The dry running of obligatory GPS devices for a small segment of the population is another.

So the next time one of the snake oil sales men from DC claim they are for "smaller government", do not believe them. It will not happen. Anyone who claims it is possible is either lying or an idiot. You cannot corral a growing population with smaller government. But you can possibly do it with "different government". And that is I am afraid where we are headed.

Later.........................