I have always been greatly impressed by long-term visionaries — not those who can create “a developer’s vision” for a new community like Daniel Island, but a visionary who can see beyond the brick and mortar, and predict what will happen in the long term as a result of the building of said community. I am not talking about when the final inch has been paved and the last transplant family from Ohio has tucked itself into the last condo Mayberry. I’m talking fifty years out from then … that’s a visionary.
Perhaps the earliest of our accurate political visionaries were George Orwell, Aldus Huxley, and Ayn Rand, each correct in their own way.
Orwell predicted the surveillance technology by which our government would track and manipulate us, the social credit score that’s coming, and how effective the government’s monopoly on violence would be. Consider how effective those threats of violence were when utilized by community police during Covid lockdowns: Police have guns, and actually used the threat of them (or arrest) to stop people from sitting alone on a beach because … because nothing but sheer idiocy.
Were the police “just doing their job?” We heard a lot about that from Nazi prison guards after WWII.
Orwell also wrote of the state re-writing history as needed. His job was to edit stories from years (or months) ago, and put the old version down “the memory hole” — where the old truth fell into an incinerator, and the new truth became the official story.
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Oceana has always been at war with East Asia. Covid came from bats. Apple is an ethical company. The Steele dossier has always been fact. Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation.
Huxley took a different view, and equally true: The government wouldn’t need to use violence — access to drugs and pointless/ mindless/ endless forms of entertainment would bring the people under control quite well.
Ritalin and video games. Reefer, Netflix and chill. Alcohol and sports. Opioids and unemployment checks. Social media and dopamine. Huxley’s book was published in 1932, when telephones were young, talkie-movies had just been invented, and radio was just a decade into entertaining Americans. How could he have even imagined where we’d be today?
Rand, herself having seen the destruction brought on by communism, wrote of a time when men who worked and produced would be punished by men who added no value to society, but instead sat in judgement of the producers because they had the right “feelings” about “spreading the wealth.”
Interestingly, Atlas Shrugged didn’t focus on “socialists in congress” passing draconian laws, although big government and high taxes were certainly a theme. Instead she wrote about the power of bureaucrats to wreak regulatory havoc, and corporate boards committing suicide in order to appear woke. Disney, anyone? Pacific Gas & Electric? Victoria’s Secret? Gillette? How the US military’s recruiting efforts keep falling short by 20 percent a year?
Another visionary I recall from my youth was William Harrison, the writer of the short story and screenplay Rollerball. While no genius like the previously noted authors, Harrison predicted a few things that, back in 1975, seemed silly. Primarily, the idea that corporations — not the government — would be the most powerful forces in the world. Now in 2022 we understand this to be true, but in 1975, many Americans viewed corporations as “behemoth small businesses” that took care of their employees for their entire career, and produced important products.
If anything, Harrison missed the mark in one important area — he ended the movie with a message of the indomitable spirit of the individual when striving mightily to preserve their dignity and individualism. Today, of course, the mob that runs the nation has been quite effective at cancelling or destroying any individual who might have a different opinion … or have the nerve to act or speak on their beliefs.
As technology has reached a mach+ speed, being a visionary is much easier now. The “Dangerous Curves Ahead” signs are posted every 100-feet, but the Left cannot see them. In fact, they laugh at the existence of the signs, and seem to be accelerating to prove the signs aren’t true.
The most recent development they will ignore is a story reported by The Epoch Times, that Canadian credit union Vancity is attaching a “carbon footprint” tracking system to its Visa cards – a technology already being utilized by some Mastercards. The story cites the developer’s wording that this system will provide “educational and behavioral nudging,” because “the financial industry will play a major role in fighting climate change.”
Nothing to see here, folks — just move along.
(Click to view)
(VIA: GETTY IMAGES)
After all, tracking your carbon footprint will only matter if you buy gas, diesel, motor oil, jet fuel, propane, solvents, grease, ink, football cleats, sweaters, antiseptics, umbrellas, tennis rackets, skate boards, toilets, motorcycle helmets, lipstick, shampoo, crayons, parachutes, golf balls, toothpaste, fishing rods, denture adhesive, antifreeze, shower curtains, luggage, heart valves, tents, sunglasses, shaving crème, carpet, panty hose, lifejackets, contact lenses, fan belts, insect repellant, artificial limbs … oh, and few hundred other things — because, you know, they add to your footprint, too.
Let’s take Sandy Cortez as an example … once she takes time away from laughing at angry constituents and decides to travel across America to lecture fellow dummies on the Green New Deal. Having been mentored by Nancy Pelosi, let’s assume she’s insider-traded herself into a fortune – and to make a point says she’s paying for it herself.
How does she get around? Amtrak? Greyhound? Not likely. Electric car? Good luck making it across Texas, the Midwest, or the Big Sky Country … people there drive 200 miles for a pack of cigarettes.
So, it’s a car (not a jet of course). Well, ol’ Sandy is chewing up a lot of blacktop and sucking down a lot of that Texas Tea, and it’s making John Kerry nervous. When does he say, “Turn her card off!”
Maybe it’s when she goes to buy Beto a skateboard? Some of the oil-based paint she uses as lipstick? A really, really tight sweater? Some toothpaste to keep her chicklets bright white and minty fresh? What if Nancy P asks her to pick up some denture crème? Or Hillary asks her to grab some panty hose because she just bought a hot new mini-skirt?
When will they say, “You’ve used up your share of carbon?”
If they do turn off her card, will she just hit an ATM to get cash?
She better check with Uncle Joe, because he recently said, “my administration places the highest urgency on research and development efforts into the potential design and deployment options of a Central Bank Digital Currency.”
As I said at the beginning, in the past real visionaries were tough to find — a truly rare breed of human.
Today? All it takes the ability to read.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
(Via: Provided)
Prioleau Alexander is a freelance writer, focusing mostly on politics and non-fiction humor. He is the author of two books: ‘You Want Fries With That?’ and ‘Dispatches Along the Way.’ Both are available on Amazon. He hopes to have another title published soon, but that would require his agent actually doing his job, so it may be awhile.
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