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Opinions/Editorials Title: Adolph and the Free Sh*t Model I really don’t like invoking Adolph, and I don’t like “swear words,” especially in headlines. But today I’m hard pressed to avoid either, and so I’ll just go with it. I can’t avoid Adolph because he said something more clearly than anyone else I’m able to quote. Here’s the passage: I have not come into this world to make men better, but to make use of their weaknesses. And that’s precisely what he did. It’s also what Google, Facebook, and other “free sh*t” providers are doing. They are amassing power by using human weaknesses… and the bosses know it quite well. A friend recently sent me an article by Nathan McDonald of “Sprott Money News.” In it, Mr. McDonald complains that people “are blissfully ignoring the ensnaring net that is slowly being drawn around them.” And he’s right of course. He goes on to say, The digital dark age is here, and the elite few tech giants that are ushering it in are beginning their attack on anyone, anything that does not agree with their echo chamber of thought. A small handful of companies, you know their names well, virtually control a massive part of our society now. They have near complete control over many aspects of your lives, and don’t for a second think that they don’t. And again, Mr. McDonald is not wrong, although it goes even farther than he notes; all of this is tied into the Western spy agencies. Consider: If you were a spymaster, is there any chance you’d ignore the ability to deeply surveil a couple of billion people at once? Especially if it was all automated and maintained at the expense of others? You’d be the worst spymaster in history if you didn’t. And so Facebook, and especially Google, have been brought into the security complex. (You can see some damning emails in our report.) The thing is, people could opt out of it all (well, nearly all of it) in a single day, if they weren’t trapped by their own weaknesses. The company I manage (Cryptohippie) has been doing just that for more than a decade, and there are now others providing similar services. Plus, there are functional dark nets. Throwing sand in Sauron’s eye isn’t beyond people’s technical or monetary abilities… it’s just beyond their emotional abilities. Okay, let’s get specific. First are the social instincts: getting your esteem from others, feeling like part of a group and feeling unable (or afraid) to leave it. Becoming dependent upon their approval, building your life around them, and feeling a deep void at the thought of losing them. Humans are susceptible to these things, and Facebook plays them to the hilt. They even design programs to keep people addicted. The second weakness is the one that brings people into the trap. It’s the one that Google especially uses. And it is this: Humans have a deep fear of scarcity. Here’s what I replied to the friend who sent me Mr. McDonald’s article: Most people live in perpetual fear of scarcity (even though they experience no actual privation) and are abject suckers for free stuff. The entire system rests upon that weakness. I think we’ve all felt the overly strong impulse to grab at anything free. We may understand very well that we’re accepting the proverbial “candy from the man in the car.” We adults understand on some level that we’re being lied to – no one provides long-term services that are actually free – but we jump at the offer just the same. On top of that, nearly none of us in the West are suffering from lack of material resources. We’d have no problem paying a couple of dollars per month for email and search services. And yet we feel compelled to grasp at free stuff… even though we know that the offer comes from liars with hidden motives. Yeah, something’s wrong in us. And it links back to a fear of scarcity. Not only is it an old fear (it had some factual basis in the old days), but it is stoked in us day by day. Try, if you dare, to count the number of ads you are confronted with every day, and see if you can locate the obscure “you’re insufficient without this” message in them. They say that some of the American Indians used to fear having their photos taken, as the photo might capture their souls. But this is precisely what Google, Facebook, et al., are doing: They’re taking your digital soul, handing it to the world’s most intrusive spy agencies, manipulating you based upon it, and now are playing truth police at the behest of behind-the-scene elites. And it all rests upon our weaknesses. It’s time to straighten up and walk away.
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