OPINION:
Psychologist, author and social commentator Jordan Peterson, the guy the left loves to hate, said on Sky News Australia that it won’t be long before the fears over COVID-19 are exploited to bring about a mass social credit system involving digital passports and government controls on the people.
He’s quite right.
The masses, amid COVID-19 fears, have shown as frogs in boiling pots of water.
Slowly, slowly, slowly government officials in partnership with medical bureaucrats increased temperatures slightly, slightly, slightly — suggesting social distancing and shutting down society for perhaps two weeks to flatten the curve; then moving into police arrests of those who dared walk the beach, ride the train, play in the park without face masks; then moved into punitive fines for churches that refused to close, businesses that refused to shut down; then moved into forced vaccines into the arms of military members, health care workers, private sector workers — children. Schools were closed — by government order, not law. Businesses were closed — by government decree, not law. Citizens were ordered off the streets — by government dictate, not law.
And nowadays, as everybody thinks the world has calmed and life has continued in pre-COVID norms? It’s a lie. It’s a lull.
It’s the lull before the next dictatorial storm.
The Great Reset is moving ahead, in all its cultural Marxist glory. It’s being fueled by the fearful hints of new variants from the original coronavirus — about the need to keep up with booster after boosters — about the possible-potential-probable need to enact mitigating measures to stop these variants’ spread in their tracks. That’s all lead-up for more government mandates (not laws). That’s all prelude to more government mandated shut-downs and seizures of liberties (not lawful — but at that point, few care).
Fear drives out critical thinking.
There is no faith in fear.
As Peterson said, people will do anything in the name of safety and convenience, even if it means ceding liberties.
People will especially do anything in the same of safety and convenience when they’re completely clueless about their simultaneous loss of liberties.
China’s social credit system where individuals cannot travel or move about freely without showing their green, government-approved checkmarks will come to America’s lands on the wings of fear, on the hope for safety and security, on the promises of government to provide safety and security. The sheep will see digital passports as reasonable. They will bleat out their angry displeasure to anyone who disagrees. And soon enough the scales will tip where the systems — the schools, the private businesses, the public offices, the places of entertainment and worship — fold and cave and bend to the pleadings of the fear-filled and the stern dictates of the bureaucrats.
No laws necessary.
No debate needed.
Like a whisper of an old friend, totalitarianism will become the way of the world.
“People have no idea. It’s like, ‘Well, why not have a digital passport?’ I mean, how convenient,” Peterson said, The Blaze reported. “And it’s like … ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if we could pay for everything with our phones?’ It’s like, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if the central government — who is woke-oriented and makes carbon dioxide remediation the priority — knows exactly what you spend on everything so they can target you tax-wise with precision?’”
Read the tea leaves.
Actually, read the Bible. The book of Romans, the book of Revelation, the book of Matthew all speak to how evil passes for good and how easy it is to fool people to see evil as good.
Add technology to the mix — artificial intelligence, the automation of the social credit system — and watch the freedom crumble.
“You just cannot imagine how screwed you are,” Peterson said. “It’s way worse than anything Kafka ever imagined because at least with Kafka, there were bureaucrats, faceless though they may have been — they’re human. Once the machines can lock you out. Oh, you are in such trouble. And we’re speeding towards that with an immense lack of care.”
It’s a bleak future.
But it doesn’t have to be. Just a few men and women of solid moral character with bold determination to bring America back to a day where God-given rights prevailed, and government entities were truly subservient to the people, would do much to end the totalitarian evils that loom large.
Just a few. God doesn’t need a majority.
The battle is against social credits and digital passports. But the war is against collectivism. If America is to be free, Americans must insist on their God-given rights. Once secured, everything else will fall into place.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.