I woke up early even though I didn't want to. I was off today but I received text that brought me out of my heavy sleep. It was from the some government agency and it said URGENT WARNING. I opened it expecting to see that an apocalyptic war had begun, or that a rock from space is on its way to kill us all, or maybe even that dangerous riots are threatening my area. I'd better get my guns together and prepare to make my new life foraging for food in the wilderness, I thought. Perhaps I'll even carve out a personal empire as a raider king in the coming Mad Max style hellscape. One can only hope, I supposed as I began to read the words on my Samsung's cracked screen.
"Only celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday with members of your immediate household," the URGENT WARNING read. I was overcome with disappointment. I had already started planning for the post-civilization future and all I saw was an intrusive command from some asshole telling me how to appropriately spend my day off. Can we come together and just say "fuck you" to these people already? Why is it acceptable for the city, or state, or whomever to wake us up by electronically barking orders at us? Do we not see what is happening? By embracing or, at least, tolerating each one of these little invasive "protective measures" (or constant intrusions), we lose another crumb of our freedom, our privacy, and our agency to control our own lives. The systems of authority are hungry to find more means of entry through which to control our personal behavior and it is being normalized under the guise of important safety announcements. Call me crazy but I think that should worry people.
Maybe these texts are only minor annoyances. Maybe I am making too much of this. I still find it troubling that that someone on high, has the right to intrude on my slumber with an order though. How I spend my day is my business. It may only be a small intrusion on my life, but I get the sense that it is a probing attack. The authorities want to see what we will put up with and if we react passively to their trespass, they will trespass a little further. Over time the effect is the same as an outright invasion into our personal lives but by the time many people notice, it will be too late. I think it is best to resist in whatever capacity we can, call out the lies when we see them, and be ready for future encroachments on our freedom.
Peace.
All the images in this post are sourced from the free image website unsplash.com.
