First, I must apologize to my loyal readers who have their own substack as I have not been able to read your recent postings. This is the end of the school year and is a very busy time for those of us in the education business. This is also where this post shall begin; the first of two days of our annual speech contest at the med school.
Thirty five (35) students presented speeches today. Of those, nine (9) were unmasked. 9 out of 35 unmasked. Conversely, 26/35 wore masks on stage as they gave their speeches. If you live in Japan, these are your future doctors and future professors at med schools. 3/8 teachers were unmasked. 5/8 masked. Masked or not bore no correlation to the masking habits of their teachers. I did see one of my student’s faces for the first time today, though. She has been in my class for a year but never unmasked until today. The other unmasked of my students dropped theirs during the course of the past year. So far, none of my other students have revealed their faces to me. Surreality.
Next stop on the crazy train to dystopia is digital surveillance. This is a hot topic for myself and I have posted about it in the past. Disturbing to me is how many so easily dismiss these concerns with statements along the line of “Just don’t comply.”, to which I liken those years ago who angrily responded to my concerns over FBAR with “How in the hell will the US know what I earn and have in my bank account overseas!?”. The answer is that our banks are spying on our accounts for the US through FATCA.
Similarly, we will be spied on through various forms of digital IDs. In truth, many of us already are to various degrees. I believe I have mentioned this on the past but today I was able to snap a pic of the posters in the classroom we used. Below is the poster as is with the online translation below it.
The fact that medical students are present is meaningless unless they have the IC equipped Student ID card AND properly operate the attendance verification apparatus. Yes, universities in Japan take class attendance. It accounts for 20% of the overall grade at my med school. Please note that if the student forgot their card or misoperated the attendance dohicky, they are marked absent and that there is no recourse. You can be physically standing in front of the instructor and he/she can do nothing to indicate that you are in fact there. You are not there just as firmly as the dead man in Yossarian’s tent remained in Yossarian’s tent.
Now, lets visit this wonderful bit of brilliance from two years ago.
Yes, for those new to my substack, we have QR Code only Restrooms in Japan. While not universal (Yet?), they exist. To use them, you use first have an idiot phone. I do not. The wife does, however, which kept junior in dry clothing for the end of our city “Ekikara hike”. The next step to use these is to make a qualifying purchase from a qualified merchant in the shopping area. Once the qualifying purchase from the qualified merchant has been concluded, you can then be provided with the QR code to read with your idiot phone. To enter the restrooms, you must allow the QR code reader to scan the QR code from your idiot phone. Do not be shocked by the volume of spam you are certain to get from the shopping mall ever-there-after. A situation that some have responded to learning of with “I’d just relive myself in the street.”. Perhaps a solution to the immediate problem of bursting bladders, but short sighted in the extreme. Let’s merge the two systems above and add a pinch of evil creativity to see what kind of mayhem those who brought us masking, social distancing and the clot shot might concoct for us.
Imagine a digital ID in whatever form or forms they choose to “allow” us to use for our everyday needs. Not having it on your person means that no one can interact with you in a meaningful way. As is currently the case for some classes at the med school, your professor can talk to you, but can do nothing to log your present for a class you were present for and participated in but your get no credit for because you forgot your ID card or could not get the card reader/reporter to function properly; so it too will be with your bank, gas station and grocery store, any store selling anything or shop providing any service. Don’t have your digital ID and get hit by a car whose driver was playing Poke Man Go while driving, tough shit paddy, sucks to be you; you die because the ambulance crew can not pick you up and transport you to the hospital. If a Good Samaritan takes you the hospital, the hospital will refuse to admit you as quickly as they refused the unvaxxed.
As with the QR Code Only Restrooms, gaining access depends upon not only having the required device, but also performing an act as grievous as buying what they want you to buy, so too will access to ATMs, gas stations, everything. Now, let’s add the social credit system that we already have in the West. Have you bought a bible or donated to a Christian, Jewish or Buddhist charity recently? That will cost you X number of points. Oh, you have NOT contributed to BLM or bought tickets to the family friendly drag show? That will cost more points. Sorry, you now do not have enough points to access this ATM/Gas pump/grocery store/clinic/hospital/your school/your kid’s school/etc.
This is not some far off dystopian nightmare. It is reality if full in China and in part, in Japan, the US and Canada that I know of specific cases which I can cite from memory and I believe in New Zealand, Australia and the UK but I can not recall specific situations in these.
It’s here folks, it’s here, now.
Good to hear from you!
Non compliance.
If it were that easy then many people would not have done it. I think if you can, make it so your transactions are as private as you can make them, that would be good. But is bitcoin an acceptable form of payment in many places? How do you have your own "wallet" in order to make transactions that they can't see. Because the only way it works is if it is encrypted on both ends using the blockchain technology.
I don't have an answer. I'm trying to figure out what I can do, one person, to stay out of the WHO. Seems like a lot of countries want to defer to the WHO to do their thinking for them.
I was talking someone close to me, in her seventies. She was lamenting that she believes her ability to communicate is going. But I wondered if simply she can't recall things because the internet has made her rusty and out of practice. If I don't burn calories trying to remember who played the lead character in the movie "Any Which Way But Loose" from the 1970's, then it is no wonder that I will be stuck not recalling things because I no longer use strategies to recall it.
I have AI writing proposals for me that I customize. A lot of it is procedural things. But I wonder, how much am I losing out of my mental fast ball by using AI to do these things?
Masks. How were the masked speeches? Was it hard to listen to? I find it hard to listen to masked people because of the constricted sounds they make wherein they must over annunciate to combat the muffling. But yes, it is a sad commentary on who are becoming medical professionals. And this is Japan which I thought had taken over excellence in education. Might as well announce "I believe in superstition" if you wear one.
As an unmasked person, I would go up, and try to mimic the sounds by those making masked speech and if questioned about it I would say "I self identify as wearing a mask."
Concerning not being marked present if you forget your ID. I can see many different ways this can go bad. One of the Dark Mirror or Black Mirror episodes was becoming a "non person." But I also hear about other things that didn't happen because there was no id code associated with it. For instance, for death certificates there is no ID code apparently for vaccine injury, so deaths are marked as being due to some other cause than the vaccine.
I hate to say it but it will be darkest before dawn. Dawn is still a far away, and most people have yet to realize where we are yet, and where we are going. The equilibrium will be sliding towards more authoritarianism, and less freedom for vast majority of the world. It all has the historical feel of post ww1. We actually have the academia/elites/.gov questioning "freedom" and "human rights". This is before we are in a bad situation.......