From:
"Andy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
You may find this article humorous, and it's so far out
there that I guess it is a bit silly. The movie did so well that I'd bet most of
us know what "The Matrix" is. A world where machines and computers rule...this
article could explain the turning point:
"War on Drugs" = War on Cash, or, Why the "War on Drugs"
may well be worth fighting.
The massive and ever-increasing presence of
illicit drugs within our society is prompting much concern. The US Government's
"War on Drugs" is demonstrably not working and further considered by many to be
counterproductive.
Here in the UK, heroin usage, (which along with crack
cocaine is generally regarded as the most socially dangerous illicit substance),
is now reckoned to be approaching 2% of the general population of some cities.
Prompting louder and greater cries that "something must be done".
I
believe there are three principal reasons why government, and the forces behind
government, are allowing the drug situation to get so out of control. I will
relate these and then hypothesize further about where all this is
leading.
Firstly, it helps facilitate transnational corporate
expansionism. In a world where very big companies are seeking to get bigger
still; to expand their holdings, both fiscal and human; it is very useful to be
able to both socially and politically disenfranchise those persons who, for one
reason or another, do not quite fit into the corporate gameplan. Heroin does
this admirably. It is a very powerful painkiller whose essential action is to
partially remove the user from the life process; to reduce the emotional impact
of incoming stimuli and so lower our response to our environment. Junkies
typically neither vote nor riot. They are rendered socially and politically
inactive by their drug of choice and so do little to threaten the advance of
consumerism.
Secondly, heroin, and also cocaine, are now such major
commodities, any effective attack on their presence would inevitably have a
major effect on the world markets. Some analysts suggest effective action to
lower heroin and cocaine supplies could end the current bull run and cause the
market to enter a phase of depression. Something those who run the worlds'
finances apparently seem determined to prevent.
Thirdly, and more
sinisterly, I believe the increasing presence of heroin and crack cocaine within
our communities, and the accompanying calls for 'something to be done', will be
used to maneuver us into finally rejecting cash once and for all. For, without
cash, untraceable financial transactions such as the sale of illicit substances
are not possible.
I believe that early in the coming century, somewhere,
likely in Western Europe, there will be a pilot scheme to remove illicit drugs
by outlawing cash currency. This scheme will work, and, more importantly, be
seen to work. From then on, the media will unrelenting sell the idea that the
outlawing of cash will remove illicit heroin, to the point where the public will
be literally begging government to undertake a similar scheme in their
neighborhood. Large retail chains will proclaim their allegiance to the War on
Drugs by renouncing the acceptance of cash. Media worthies, in TV extravaganzas,
will exhort us to give up cash "for the sake of our childrens' future".
Increasingly, persons still using or accepting cash will be seen as social
pariahs, selfishly putting their own obsession with personal freedom above the
needs of the community.
Over the following years cash will be steadily
removed from our society until all money is electronic and controlled by a vast
interlocked network of computers.
People will now possess "smart cards",
credit-card sized things with vast amounts of information about the holder on
them, including his or her current financial limits.
Then, once cash is
fully eliminated, and not before, big problems will begin to "occur" within the
electronic money system. Massive frauds will happen. People will find all their
money suddenly disappearing without their knowing where it's gone. About this
time, the media will begin introducing the idea that only by putting the info on
the smart card actually into the users' body, by microchipping people, can our
personal and financial details be 100% safe.
Pilot schemes will operate,
(some are already in existence), and the persons signing up for "chipping" will
be seen to be totally resistant to fraudulent loss of their money. Banks and
employers will offer incentives to people to get chipped. The media will sell
the idea unrelentingly. Small children will go missing and be found "because
they were chipped". Films and TV will show chipping as the socially positive
thing to do. Youngsters will be bombarded with propaganda telling them chipping
is cool, and a smart idea if you want to get ahead. Greater and greater problems
will occur with smart cards, until the general public are queuing around the
block to get themselves chipped.
Finally, we will have a world where
nearly everyone will be chipped, everyone linked to, and in constant
communication with, one central computer. A computer that both receives
information from the person, medical as well as personal and financial, and
sends it.
And now of course, as others have also written, the darker
purpose becomes revealed. For the chip is capable not only of receiving updates
of a persons' finances. But also electronic signals capable of altering mood,
emotional state and a host of other factors. We will end up with a situation
where all humanity is regulated by a computer. Hell on Earth. A control fantasy
that has likely been pursued by those who run our society for many thousand
years.
Many reading this will be skeptical as to whether we would ever
allow ourselves to be chipped. But, if you look closely, you will see that once
cash is eliminated, so much control over our finances is centralized that there
are any number of pathways that can be pursued to make chipping an
inevitability.
The key is removing cash. Give up cash and we give up our
soul. And the question therefore is - What can we do about drugs without having
to give up cash. For if it can be demonstrated that illicit heroin and crack
cocaine can be dealt with without the need to outlaw currency, one very powerful
route for rendering all money electronic is destroyed.
Help may come
from an unexpected quarter. In June 1998, at a Special Session of the United
Nations Drug Control Programme, newly elected UNDCP supremo, Pino Arlacchi,
delivered an address to some 168 world leaders and their representatives. In it
he outlined his "grand plan" to eliminate heroin and cocaine worldwide by the
use of crop replacement programs, (schemes to encourage or compel poppy and coca
farmers to switch crops). Arlacchi, a former Mafia-buster in his native Italy,
had pioneered such schemes in places like Burma and Afghanistan with
considerable success.
Arlacchi's plan was costed at US$5 billion, divided
between participating nations and spread over ten years. This is not a lot of
money, especially when one considers that the US State Department openly admits
illicit drugs cost the US economy alone over $75 billion per annum.
What
is also interesting about Arlacchi's plan is that, despite the presence of
Clinton and countless other world leaders at its unveiling, barely a word of it
has escaped to the media. In the UK, to the best of my knowledge, it has not
attracted a single column centimeter of coverage in any major newspaper. In a
country where tales of playground drug dealers regale our front pages on a
weekly basis, it seems it's decided no-one would be interested in hearing about
a UN head who says he can eliminate drugs at source! Needless to say, the plan
to eliminate heroin and cocaine has received virtually no funding to date. But
if people knew about it?
In addition, many people are also not aware of
the existence of substances that can eliminate the symptoms of withdrawal
associated with drug addiction. The most noteworthy of which being ibogaine, an
indole alkaloid derived from an African plant source. Ibogaine, in addition to
removing withdrawal symptomology, is beneficially oneirogenic. Meaning it
induces a dreamlike state in which the user can begin to examine his or her
drug-using behavior from a new perspective, frequently helping to facilitate
long-term drug abstinence.
To sum up, I believe it is in our considerable
interest to devote time to thinking about the "drugs problem" here and now.
Leaving it to the politicians may prove a dangerous mistake.
Nick
Sandberg
December 1999
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