The One Industry Where the State and Government Excels
I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ll say it again. Readers often accuse me of being a fear-monger. They don’t like it when I warn about the encroachment of the State on individual freedom.
After all, they look out their window and see the sun shining and the birds chirping. How bad could things really get?
Well, I’m not making this stuff up. And besides, if you want to see some fear mongering, I’ll show you the experts.
But when I tell you that governments (of all colours) will do all they can to cling to power, including raising taxes, and restricting individual freedom, I’m not trying to scare you, I’m trying to warn you.
If you don’t believe me, I can’t understand why, because it’s not as though they’re keeping things secret…
Yesterday, Bloomberg News noted the release of the US National Intelligence Council’s (NIC) Global Trends 2030 report.
The NIC’s role is to research and analyse the opinion of members of the US’s 16 (that’s right, 16) intelligence agencies.
And there’s no doubt about what’s on the mind of the spooks.
Bloomberg News interviewed the report’s main author, Mathew Burrows:
‘While enormous caches of data eventually will enable governments to “figure out and predict what people are going to be doing” and “get more control over society,” he [Burrows] said, for now “the scales tip more in favor of the individual than the state.’
The US government, like their Aussie counterparts, think individuals have a bit too much control and freedom…for now. From their viewpoint, that’s got to change.
Remember, freedom for the people means less control for the government.
But if you’re still not convinced, how about this, taken from the actual 160-page report. If governments don’t act…
‘In a tectonic shift, individuals and small groups will have greater access to lethal and disruptive technologies (particularly precision-strike capabilities, cyber instruments, and bioterror weaponry), enabling them to perpetrate large-scale violence — a capability formerly the monopoly of states.’
You see what I’m talking about? The intelligence agencies don’t want a free people doing to the State what the State does to the people.
‘Large-scale violence’? That’s the governments’ job.
Look, I’m not saying I want people to kill each other with lethal weapons. I just want the government to stop killing people with lethal weapons.
Second-Rate ‘Private Sector’ Killers
The State in its various forms has killed more people than even the most violent of ‘private sector’ killers (and don’t talk to me about the drug companies killing people, only government-approved drugs get clearance, so drug companies are more fascistic than private).
Even the most prolific of serial killers has nothing on the atrocities of the State. According to Homesecurity.net, Pedro Alonso Lopez, the ‘Monster of the Andes’, killed over 300 people, including in Ecuador where he killed ‘about 3–4 girls a week.’
But 300 is small fry compared to what the State can do with its ‘precision-strike capabilities’ and ‘bioterror weaponry’.
Think about it…
40–72 million in the second World War.
Up to seven million during the Napoleonic Wars.
Three million during the Vietnam War.
And more than 15 million during the first World War.
Yet the State insists it exists to protect people from the violence of other individuals.
Now, I know I give the State a hard time. But I’ll cut them some slack. Because if there’s one sector where the State beats the private sector hands down it’s the killing sector…as the numbers above prove.
And so given the choice between a government that claims to protect individuals from violence by other individuals, or protecting yourself and your family under a private defence system, I’d take the latter any day of the week.
Four Global Megatrends Scaring Government Today
But anyway, back to the NIC report. In total the report marks four global ‘megatrends’:
- Individual Empowerment
- Diffusion of Power
- Demographic Patterns
- Growing Food, Water, and Energy Nexus
I’ve already covered Megatrend one, individual empowerment. This is a megatrend the intelligence networks can see developing…unless they can put a stop to it.
As for the diffusion of power, the report says, ‘China alone will probably have the largest economy, surpassing that of the United States a few years before 2030.’
Again, one State fearful about the rise of another powerful State. The US intelligence agencies aren’t worried about the attack on US ‘freedom’, they’re worried another State muscling in on their power base.
Finally demographics, food, water and energy. In a nutshell the intelligence boffins expect the population to reach 8.3 billion by 2030, and that the ‘Demand for food, water, and energy will grow by approximately 35, 40, and 50 percent respectively…’
Of course, no-one really knows what will happen in the future. The NIC could be way off the mark with its predictions.
As I wrote in my latest issue of Australian Small-Cap Investigator, due out this evening:
‘It’s a fact of technological progress that it’s hard to predict the future. Forecasters tend to either over- or under-estimate the future.’
But while it may be difficult to predict micro events (for instance, which mobile phone manufacturer will sell the most phones), it’s easier to predict macro events (for instance, the trend towards mobile technology).
The same goes for the expansion of the State.
I’m not smart enough to know exactly what the State will do and when it will do it. But I do know the broad trend — that the State is determined to increase its power at a cost to individual freedom.
And I’m certain that if anything, I’m under-estimating the lengths that governments will go to cling on to power.
You only have to look at two major global government events taking place — the Doha Climate Conference, and the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) in Dubai.
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
In both cases governments, statists and lobbyists are urging for more government influence in peoples’ lives.
At the WCIT, a group of nations including Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates (hardly bastions of freedom and individualism) pushed for a plan to install a global regulator to police the internet.
According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, Russia has backed off the plan. But you can take that with a pinch of salt.
Governments have long figured out that all they need to do is float an extreme policy, wait for the backlash, then say they’ve listened and will now only implement a watered down version instead.
The protestors walk away happy that they’ve stopped the government in its tracks. Meanwhile the government knows it got most of what it wanted.
In simple terms, it’s about governments taking two steps forward and one step back. That’s still progress as far as the government is concerned.
The situation in Doha with the Climate Conference is different. There doesn’t seem to be any chance of them reaching an agreement on anything to do with Climate Change.
But then again, maybe that isn’t the goal.
They’ve just finished COP18, the eighteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties. The first was in Berlin in 1995. The next (COP19) is in Eastern Europe next November.
According to the Guardian:
‘The Doha climate talks were a start, but 2015 will be the moment of truth. With time running out to tackle global warming, sustained global pressure must be put on governments to reach a deal in 2015.’
Tick-tock, time is running out.
Not really.
If time really was running out…if the world really was in mortal danger, surely the governments would do something about it.
The reason they’re happy to keep dragging this out is because it’s got nothing to do with climate change. It’s all about gaining power.
Tax and Inflation or Bullets and Bombs
As I said above, politicians have learned that the best way to achieve more power is by degrees…slowly, one step at a time (two steps forward, one step back).
They’ve seen from history that they don’t need to conquer nations to get power, all they need to do is conquer their own citizens — tax and inflation rather than bullets and bombs.
The best way to do that is to strike fear into you — the fear of foreign invaders, the fear of terrorism, the fear of people using the internet to defraud you…and most of all, the fear of freedom.
But the government will protect you. All it needs is some of your money and some of your freedom.
The latest fear-mongering ruse is the fear of boiling oceans and melting ice caps. Fear is the Climate Change lobby’s only weapon. That’s not me saying that, they admit that themselves. Again from the Guardian:
‘The global public are not now mobilised around global warming – but that is almost certain to change after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change begins publishing its latest assessment of the scientific evidence next year, when public alarm is bound to increase.’
Hang on a moment, ‘bound to increase’? But what if the scientific evidence shows that warming has stopped? After all, the latest data from the UK suggests temperatures haven’t risen in 16 years.
And as I showed you on Monday, the temperature range over the past 250 years isn’t so different from the temperature range over the previous 1,250 years.
Surely the climate lobby wouldn’t dare pre-empt the results of the IPCC’s analysis by saying it already knows the result.
In short, it’s not hard to find examples of government and bureaucracy trying to strangle the life out of freedom and liberty.
Whether it’s intelligence agencies worried that individuals have too much control over their lives; oppressive regimes worried that individuals may learn too much if the internet isn’t governed; or governments causing panic about the end to civilisation if they don’t tax the air you breath, it all boils down to one thing…
The State hates it that you have a brain and you can think for yourself. If I achieve nothing else with this newsletter, the fact that I know their game and will do all I can to expose their plans…well, that’s good enough for me.
Cheers,
Kris
From the Port Phillip Publishing Library
Special Report: The Fuse is Lit
Daily Reckoning:
The Australian Banking Behemoth
Money Morning:
Why Silver Could Be the Best Investment in 2013
Pursuit of Happiness:
Will New UN Deal Force the Government to Deny Climate Change?
If you believe happiness is worth pursuing, why not get our twice-weekly email sent directly to your inbox?
The NBN will be the biggest tool for the government and its agencies to spy on the people and then regulate what they can and can’t view, and download from the internet, all in the name of being “FOR OUR OWN GOOD”. Then comes a velvet censorship by regulation. You don’t need jack boots and truncheons any more only regulations and fines.