This is a test. This is not a test of our commitment to basic hygiene or disaster preparedness or our ability to come together as a nation in times of crisis, although were not doing so well on any of those fronts.
No, what is about to unfold over the next few weeks is a test to see how well we have assimilated the governments lessons in compliance, fear and police state tactics; a test to see how quickly well march in lockstep with the governments dictates, no questions asked; and a test to see how little resistance we offer up to the governments power grabs when made in the name of national security.
Most critically of all, this is a test to see whether the Constitutionand our commitment to the principles enshrined in the Bill of Rightscan survive a national crisis and true state of emergency.
Heres what we know: whatever the so-called threat to the nationwhether its civil unrest, school shootings, alleged acts of terrorism, or the threat of a global pandemic in the case of COVID-19the government has a tendency to capitalize on the nations heightened emotions, confusion and fear as a means of extending the reach of the police state.
This coronavirus epidemic, which has brought Chinas Orwellian surveillance out of the shadows and caused Italy to declare a nationwide lockdown, threatens to bring the American Police State out into the open on a scale weve not seen before.
If and when a nationwide lockdown finally hitsif and when we are forced to shelter in place if and when militarized police are patrolling the streets if and when security checkpoints have been established if and when the medias ability to broadcast the news has been curtailed by government censorsif and when public systems of communication (phone lines, internet, text messaging, etc.) have been restrictedif and when those FEMA camps the government has been surreptitiously building finally get used as quarantine detention centers for American citizensif and when military snatch and grab teams are deployed on local, state, and federal levels as part of the activated Continuity of Government plans to isolate anyone suspected of being infected with COVID-19and if and when martial law is enacted with little real outcry or resistance from the publicthen we will truly understand the extent to which the government has fully succeeded in recalibrating our general distaste for anything that smacks too overtly of tyranny.
This is how it begins.
The coronavirus epidemic may well be a legitimate health concern, but its the governments response to it that worries me more in the long term.
Based on the governments track record and its long-anticipated plans for instituting martial law (using armed forces to solve domestic political and social problems) in response to a future crisis, theres good reason to worry.
This is not a government with a rosy view of the future.
To the contrary, the governments vision of the future is particularly ominous if a Pentagon training video created by the Army for U.S. Special Operations Command is anything to go by.
The training video, which provides a chilling glimpse of what the government expects the world to look like in 2030, says a lot about the governments mindset and the way its views the citizenry. Even more troubling, however, is what this military video doesnt say about the Constitution and the rights of the citizenry: nothing at all.
In typical fashion, the government seems to consider the Constitution only when forced to do so. It complies with the dictates of the Constitution even less frequently. Indeed, the governments efforts to systematically lock down the nation and shift us into martial law have not been stymied one iota by the restraints imposed upon it by the Constitution: when its not bulldozing its way through the Fourth Amendment, the government just sidesteps it (with the help of the courts).
So what should you expect if the government decides to declare a national state of emergency and institute a nationwide lockdown?
More of the same of what weve been seeing in recent years.
After all, like the proverbial boiling frogs, the government has been gradually acclimating us to the specter of a police state for years now: Militarized police. Riot squads. Camouflage gear. Black uniforms. Armored vehicles. Mass arrests. Pepper spray. Tear gas. Batons. Strip searches. Surveillance cameras. Kevlar vests. Drones. Lethal weapons. Less-than-lethal weapons unleashed with deadly force. Rubber bullets. Water cannons. Stun grenades. Arrests of journalists. Crowd control tactics. Intimidation tactics. Brutality.
This is how you prepare a populace to accept a police state willingly, even gratefully.
We have made it way too easy for the government to lockdown the nation.
It wont take much more for martial law to be declared, a nationwide lockdown instituted, and the American people to be terrorized into compliance by the governments latest and greatest scare tactic, even if it means being stripped of ones constitutional rights at a moments notice.
This continual undermining of the rules that protect civil liberties has far-reaching consequences on a populace that not only remains ignorant about their rights but is inclined to sacrifice their liberties for phantom promises of safety.
It may be that weve already gone too far down this road. However, dont let this latest crisis cause you to panic to such an extent that you relinquish your fundamental right to make decisions for yourself and your loved ones and willingly surrender what remains of your freedoms.
This too shall pass.
Remember, a police state does not come about overnight.
Yet as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, no matter how it starts, with a questionable infringement justified in the name of safety or a nationwide lockdown to guard against a global pandemic, it always ends the same: by pushing us one step closer to a future in which the government has all the power and we the people have none.
Poster Comment:
Of the many ways I can get sick or even perish, I am not much worried about getting a flu virus that hasn't really killed many people. I try to keep healthy, but that doesn't mean going Howard Hughes about bugs.