The contemporary future shock era was customized for the authoritarian regime of China, and along with the tech paradigm, the future clings to a precarious cleft as the valley of hope is obscured through an ambiguous haze of idealistic elements and savagely brutal elitism. In the information age of the implacable blockchain ledger, where data driven solutions supersede the individual decision making of human beings, the unfortunate citizens of the tyrannical reign face the intolerable consequences of automated bureaucracy, as the extensive AI framework possesses an impeccably selective memory, and compromise remains impossible.
Surprisingly, America faces a substantial threat to the basic rights and freedoms through the digital dreamworld, as the two gullible youngest generations corrupted by rampant enablement, an insufferable political climate, and the existence of overbearing social media platforms, are on the verge of forgetting free will. Although no similar legislation exists in the US as to military grade ledgers, intent is still a relevant factor. And the surveilling legacy of China deserves heavy praise for a once great nation on the verge of imploding.
Beijing and Xi Jingping first launched the essence of the social credit system in 2016 as a means of squashing any ideas of resistance or beneficial change on a population worn down by decades of repressive governance. Designed to proliferate fear among the beleaguered population, the repressive system tracks all aspects of live and behavior, including how individuals interact with finances, the environment, the central government, and fellow citizens. Fortified by commercial giants such as Alibaba, the Chinese version of Amazon and other major social media sites, the technology is dauntingly powerful. Essentially, the infrastructure takes freedom of choice out of the equation, and gives the Communist party limitless data resources in continuing to inflict a stifling level of control over the population.
While US residents are not subject to the same dangers of surrendering fundamental liberties to an autonomous supercomputer, American ingenuity is doing its worst in creative ways to facilitate a similar ecosystem for nefarious purposes. Whereas China’s social credit environment is based on a plethora of convoluting documentation, the attempted nanny state of the US boils down to cancel culture through electronic channels. Both approaches to societal engineering are based on achieving universal control, however the North American model exploits the individual need for instant gratification and validation to promote conformity and radicalism against competing ideologies. What only heightens the disturbing evolution of the US version is that the tech industry is demonstratively progressive, as tech campuses are a bastions of leftism, where co-existing is as challenging as negotiating with an anthill whose chief objective is to create a muted atmosphere of tribalism.
The common theme on social media and the collective ledger of American social media groupthink, is the propensity to shame, castigate, ridicule, and ultimate ostracize an individual who does not adhere to left of center policies. Business owners who do not follow trending politics are tarnished, teachers, who stand up for proven scientific research are erased, and Second Amendment supporters are stereotyped as middle America separatists plotting to overthrow the federal government. The issue is not with the kneejerk responses of the 15-second attentions spans, but the collective recall capabilities of the indoctrinated masses, who are oblivious to their status as a worker ant information custodian motivated by the status of the hive, and not free will. As US lawmakers would not touch the idea of building an official social credit system with ten pound drone, the blueprint for fear-mongering, coercion, and conformity was perfected by Stalinists, and those tyrannical figureheads of the modern nation state, are just as complicit as the murderous Communist fundamentalists by endorsing treachery to the onset of societal malaise. The People’s Liberation Army does not need to commit to largescale interference campaigns, when reactionary housewives are posting slanderous content about a law-abiding gun owning neighbor.
China’s ledger calculates a score for an individual apparently based on nuances and the amount of demerits that are accrued by those forcefully enrolled within the program. Carelessly tossing a cigarette butt can earn 15 years in prison as well as the offender being blacklisted. The tabulated total is indicative of a movement started in the late 1980’s, as minorities were ranked by the government according to population figures and political standing. Of course, the lower the assessment of a people by the daunting dominion of government, equated to a subsequent dearth of access to social programs and funding.
Meanwhile, back on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, the idea of the guilt trip has been refined and militarized to adhere to a narrative. Requesting a dossier of oneself, an individual can trace a pathway of the ups and downs of life back to the early 2000’s and realize why they can’t find a job, or are viewed as social pariah. Imagine experiencing fate based on shards of data kept alive in the vast skeletons of server farms long forgotten and irrelevant? Synapses and neurons have been traded for streamlined computer chips and the pursuit of Moore’s law. The irony is not lost on the flesh and blood of human vulnerability, yet the engineering backed by billions of years of evolution.
While both sides of the political ledger should be held responsible for the current debacle afflicting the smaller municipalities outside of the gargantuan population centers as abject examples of corruption and unrelenting internecine forced by the abolitionist movement, the sanctimonious mentality of social justice warriors is prevalent and reprehensible in its dysfunction. As privacy is not a critical issue for the impressionable generations, as the older members of society gracefully yield gently into the night, the forces at work through a coordinated attack on the core of inherent decision making are only enhanced by indifference to the purity of self. However, there will be a rude awaking for the legions of online “shamers” once end users shockingly discover that they are turned down for a credit application in the US, because they authored an unfavorable view about a Chinese manufactured product.
The mob mentality of judge and judgement, and off guilty before proven innocent is merely a microcosm in contributing to a cultural subconscious incapable of discerning irregularities, yet never being able to truly forget. As reasonable public servants demand accountability and atonement from Silicon Valley, the damage on society is already being inflicted by manner in which basic psychological premises are altered by the orgiastic pursuit of solidarity. It is at this juncture within the US that the baleful and inefficient adherence to the past, is rectified by the reinfusion of patriotism and benevolence.
After all, there is the old adage about sticks and stones to contend with, hence a proportion of the populace is indirectly allegiant to the Communist party through unbridled naivety. Unfortunately, the digital choices that are made now in a what is construed by optimists as a Democratic free society, will soon shape lives with all the tolerance of Mao’s ancestors, as society is marooned in the abyss of an identify crises.