A disclaimer: A lot of people may disagree with what I am about to say. In fact, sometimes, I even disagree with my own thoughts on this topic, and, in my heart of hearts, I truly wish that what i'm about to say is a heap of baloney. Please do not get angry, but feel free to correct me, share your own thoughts, and dispute any points that I make. As a community, and as human beings in general, we need to learn to work together, not against each other, when faced with disparity of opinion.
I've been watching The Handmaid's Tale, i'm 5 episodes in, completely hooked, completely mortified by every grotesque thing that happens to the human race, but, completely hooked. If you haven't seen it, it's about a dystopian society that is under fundamentalist theocratic dictatorship. All civil liberties and freedom has been ripped away from men and women alike, and everyone is at the mercy of the elite (insane) few.
To me, this show could not have come at a more appropriate time. In this current political climate, this show matters more than ever. It's a warning against a totalitarian government. It's a reminder that if we let our civil liberties slip away - and they are, slowly but surely slipping away from us - than something like this doesn't seem so fictional.
Even if you haven't seen the show, if you've read 1984, A Clockwork Orange, even The Island, we can all agree that the dystopian futures posed in these narratives are evil. But how do we get there? How do we get to a place where the world as we know it is ripped out from under us? A future where choice is nothing but a fond memory.
Glance at the news. Terrorism is everywhere. London in particular is suffering right now and people are scared. When you create fear, you create a need for change. When people are fearful and begging for peace, they happily exchange their rights for the promise of "protection". This is exactly how we get to these dystopian fictional futures that we in this day and age have luckily not yet experienced.
The hits of a quick Google search of "martial law" on Google news should be enough to send a chill up your spine. How do we prevent our society being overturned by a military totalitarian government? How do we stop our civil liberties eroding away under our very noses while we check our crypto portfolio's, level up on Candy Crush and get troll-y on some dipshit's Facebook status. I'm a victim to the daily distractions too. Kim Kardashian's imploding butt implants, Katy Perry's latest feud, Charcoal whitens your teeth! But, in the back of my mind, and, perhaps in the front of my mind sometimes, I wonder when all of this beautiful freedom may come crashing down around us.
Which leads me to my big, fearful burning question, are we at the brink of World War 3? Are we at the brink of great change that we have never known before? If you know anything of Albert Pike, you may have heard this speech regarding three planned world wars. Of course, this is speculative, this is conspiracy theory, but, when held against current world events, it rings eerily true.
I hope reading this stirs something in you, I hope it stays somewhere with you when you see the news, when and if martial law is imposed in whatever country you are reading this in. Big Brother is a very real concept today. Everything we do is monitored, and if the goverment ain't dobbing on us, we are dobbing on each other. I hope we all can band together one day, rather than tearing each other down and apart. It may be the only real chance we have.