One of my favourite all-time dystopian films is Equilibrium (2002). I recently re-watched it and appreciated how prophetic it truly was, and how underrated it still is. The plot centers around an authoritarian world that draws heavily from George Orwell’s Nineteen eighty-four and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (links to internet archive’s free digital library to read both books in full).
The cinematography in Equilibrium is absolutely superb. The protagonist character ‘Preston’, played by Christian Bale, is captivating in his journey from lawman enforcer to awakened resistance leader champion.
Within the world-building narratives of Equilibrium, the viewer learns that the population has been mandated to take a daily injection of ‘Prozium’ - a mood-altering drug that suppresses human emotions and makes people devoid of feeling anything; facilitating them to “live identical lives” in a cold, robotic manner. Emotions are literally outlawed, punishable by instant incineration in a furnace, which is referred to as ‘processing’. Anything that has connotations with the old-world, such as art, music, poetry, or human expression, is banned, and burned. Those who fall foul of the law are referred to as “sense offenders”.
The mythical leader figure of the automaton civilians is referred to as ‘Father’, with his face broadcast on huge screens relentlessly throughout the city. Ten minutes into the film, Father’s recital to the masses succinctly encapsulates the film’s tonality:
Now we are at peace with ourselves, and humankind is one.
War is gone. Hate, a memory. We are our own conscience now.
And it is this conscience that guides us to rate EC-10 for emotional content
all those things that might tempt us to feel again...and destroy them.
Librians, you have won.
Against all odds and your own natures...you have survived.
**Spoilers**
We later find out that ‘Father’ died years ago, and is now merely an AI generated construct, with the liaison spokesman to Father being the actual figurehead behind the construct.
Why should Father be more real than any other political puppet?
The real Father died years ago.
The Council simply elected me to pursue his paternal tradition.
And you, Preston, the supposed savior of the Resistance, are now its destroyer, and, along with them, you've given me yourself...calmly...
This scene is particularly interesting and prescient to our own time. Whereby generative AI deep-fakes are both increasingly apparent, and simultaneously a convenient blame-game tool to ‘debunk’ actual real footage that is incriminating for politicians and bad actors, being damaging to the reputation of government credibility - so called malinformation.
Furthermore, it speaks to the reality of the puppet masters and the puppeteers. The faceless drivers and shapers of power structures behind the public faces of ‘leadership’ - Joe Biden, case in point. In fact, (almost?) any and all misleaders of the now fake sovereign nation states, are clearly beholden to the United Nations, the Trilateral Commission, The Club of Rome, Bilderberg, and so on and so forth. Acting. Galvanising hopium.
Manufacturing consent for the censorship industrial complex, the military industrial complex, and the biopharmaceutical industrial complex.
Go to the polls, they encourage. This time it will be different, they say.
Just don’t mention the Uniparty.
The aforementioned film scene also illustrates how well-intentioned ‘resistance movements’ can be co-opted, manipulated, and turned into ‘controlled opposition’ even if those doing the bidding are unaware of their role or naïve enough to think they are not, in fact, useful idiots.
In terms of either predictive programming or prophetic film-making (is there a difference anymore?) I noticed during the re-watch the mention of ‘hate crime’ - which we, who still think for ourselves and truly feel in this current climate of totalitarianism, have come to know and loathe.
Another of Father’s on-screen speeches:
The later 20th century saw the fortuitous and simultaneous rise of two synergistic political and psychological sciences.
The first, the revolutionary precept of the hate crime.
Hate-crime.
Hate-speech.
Related:
The concept of Hate-Crime seemed so far fetched in 2002 when the film Equilibrium aired, yet now it is embedded in western society as law, enveloping the populace in a dark veil of fear, mistrust, paranoia, and literal sense offense.
Although it is not yet an offense in our real world to feel and think for ourselves, it is edging closer to being actualised. Women have been arrested for silent prayer outside abortion clinics, which is tantamount to thought-crime.
Rather, our predicament of ‘sense offense’ presumes the perceived offense of having common sense itself. Not only common sense, but having any sense of morality, of truly distinguishing between right and wrong; of not endorsing a presidential candidate from the Uniparty if it means rationalising their support for Israel genociding the people of Gaza, or for their unwavering, unapologetic support for “those beautiful life-saving C19 vaccines”; which are actually global democide-inducing holocaust 2.0 bioweapons.
“Well, you might not agree with all his stances and policies, but he’s still the best pick”, Normie mumbles.
Right. What’s a little genocide and democide amongst friends and benevolently-intentioned politicians, eh? Rationalise all the horrors away with cognitive dissonance, just because said candidate is either ‘anti-vax’, or ‘pro-crypto’, or whatever other platform they feign to stand upon that supports the voter’s belief systems.
The cost of morality is high. I’ll pay it gladly.
Our sense offenses in the real world traverse the murky realms of misinformation, disinformation, meme warfare, and information warfare - because these are powerful tools and threats to the establishment of a one world government.
The most powerful weapon on earth is not a nuclear bomb. It is not chemical nor biological weaponry.
The most powerful weapon on earth is narrative. Story. It always has been. It always will be.
WHY ARE YOU ALIVE?
In the film, Preston misses a dose of his Prozium injection, then he begins to feel, awakening to his human nature and the reality of the inhuman society he lives in. He begins to question everything around him.
During one interaction with a woman who is being held for processing before her incineration in the furnace, the following exchange takes place:
Mary: “Why are you alive?”
Preston: “I'm alive...I live......to safeguard the continuity of this great society. To serve Libria.”
Mary: “It's circular. You exist to continue your existence. What's the point?”
Preston: “What's the point of your existence?”
Mary: “To feel. Cause you've never done it, you can never know it. But it's as vital as breath. And without it...without love, without anger, without sorrow...breath is just a clock ticking.”
Preston: “Then I have no choice but to remand you to the Palace of Justice for processing.”
Mary: “You mean execution, don't you?”
Preston: “Processing.”
We may do well to ask Normie friends the same question. Why are you alive? What is the point of your existence? Next time they wax lyrically in support of net zero, digital ID, CBDCs, and other policies that will decimate everyone’s standard of living into slavery and serfdom, as neo-feudalism is ushered in with those buzzwords that make people feel smart, warm, fuzzy, and render them a part of the collectivist hive mind system:
Diversity
Resilience
Inclusion
Equity
Stakeholder capitalism
Smart cities
Scalable solutions
Sustainable development
Eradicating poverty
Equitable wealth redistribution.
The language. The lexicon. The vocabulary. The very meaning of words is being inverted, twisted, warped, neuro-linguistically programmed and nudged into and unto the masses. What is it, really?
Communism.
Marxism.
Woke Fascism.
Kakistocracy.
Corporatocracy.
Kleptocracy.
Autocracy.
It is evil incarnate. It is intentional. It is by design. It is premeditated. Woe betide whoever realises all this when it is too little and too late. For the gulags - both digital constructs to de-bank and unperson a person, and the very real physical gulag labour camps that beckon a cold seat on a stone floor at a black-site or FEMA camp, shall have plenty of spaces available for those destined to burn in the camps.
Owing to their inaction, apathy, and cowardice in the here and now.
What is the point of your existence?
The point of my existence is to feel, to suffer, to realise that suffering is a great teacher, to live my life to the fullest, to not only survive what happens next, but to thrive - God willing. To love, to procreate, to raise good human beings, to learn, to laugh, to cherish and maintain familial bonds and friendships. To become self-reliant and ungovernable. To support small businesses. To embrace decentralisation, parallel economies, sound money, and innovative entrepreneurialism over stifling regulation and restrictions on freedom of movement. To reject Marxism, communism, and the “equitable redistribution of wealth”. To embrace individuality, whilst rejecting collectivism.
RELATED REALWORLD APPLICATIONS
Story at-a-glance
Neuroscientists have been working on a number of advanced techniques with military applications
Magnetogenetics is a technique of using magnetic fields to remotely control cell activity
In human experiments, scientist experimented with reducing religious feelings
In animal experiments, researchers were able to induce specific behaviors in mice using genetically modified viruses and magnetic fields
Another area of behavioral modification is “digital vaccines,” which is special software for behavioral change
Morality Pills
In August 2020, Forbes published an article titled, “Could A ‘Morality Pill’ Help Stop The Covid-19 Pandemic?” It was based on the opinion of a bioethicist Parker Crutchfield who stated the following:
“Moral enhancement is the use of substances to make you more moral. The psychoactive substances act on your ability to reason about what the right thing to do is, or your ability to be empathetic or altruistic or cooperative.”
The problem that Crutchfield was trying to solve with his theoretical ‘morality pills’ was the pesky COVID contrarians, the proverbial grandma killers who refused to comply with masking and social distancing.
“The problem of coronavirus defectors could be solved by moral enhancement: like receiving a vaccine to beef up your immune system, people could take a substance to boost their cooperative, pro-social behavior.”
The author seemed to think very highly of his own ability to make perfect decisions about things — including about the best pandemic response — and therefore he had no qualms about imposing his opinions on others in the form of pills or, perhaps, morality injections. He went as far as to say that “a solution would be to make moral enhancement compulsory or administer it secretly, perhaps via the water supply.”
Crutchfield further referred to his work, in which he explored the concept of enhancing democracy by secretly medicating the citizens. He stated the following:
“Some theorists argue that moral bioenhancement ought to be compulsory. I take this argument one step further, arguing that if moral bioenhancement ought to be compulsory, then its administration ought to be covert rather than overt. This is to say that it is morally preferable for compulsory moral bioenhancement to be administered without the recipients knowing that they are receiving the enhancement.
My argument for this is that if moral bioenhancement ought to be compulsory, then its administration is a matter of public health, and for this reason should be governed by public health ethics.
I argue that the covert administration of a compulsory moral bioenhancement program better conforms to public health ethics than does an overt compulsory program. In particular, a covert compulsory program promotes values such as liberty, utility, equality, and autonomy better than an overt program does. [emphasis mine].”
Even if the nanotechnology cult of transhumanism and bio-digital convergence is built on conceptual futurism and fallacies - the power of suggestion and the placebo effect can be very persuasive using applied behavioural psychology. Ergo, everybody believes, because everybody believes, that everybody else believes.
It is worth reading Sasha Latypova’s grounded assessment of the nanotechnology narrative, before you start believing that we are all walking around with self-assembling quantum dot-bots and foreign nanotech objects in our bloodstreams; such is the scaremongering of alleged ‘definitive proof’ dark microscopy blood analysis of the C19 injected and uninjected alike:
The AI narrative and good old Gill Bates, I mean Bill Gates, is still worming his way into the conversation to bestow his infinite wisdom on us plebeians in big tech’s role to counter misinformation…
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is very busy these days in the media, promoting his ideas of what the future of humanity should look like, and he is given a chance to do that both on streaming networks like Netflix, and legacy broadcasters like ABC.
It remains a mystery why this man’s opinions on these big topics matter or should matter, let alone be implemented anywhere, given his background. And that’s the already mentioned Microsoft, a poster child for corporate oppression in the tech market, and in many aspects the controversial Gates Foundation.
This mystery was not explained, though, as Oprah Winfrey on ABC let Gates promote regulation that would essentially create a de jure version of what is already de facto happening: the Big Tech-Big Government collusion.
Only, going forward, Gates seems to prefer that to be legitimized (instead of being treated as unconstitutional in the US, which it is right now), and a regulated policy to be referred to as “companies working with the government.”
And why? Gates, of all people, cynically cites the need to “craft something that’s not just profit driven.”
The question Gates was trying to answer while presenting his thoughts on this future dystopian hybrid “partnership” was whether he thought Microsoft and others making money from “AI” products are obligated to “help us manage and navigate through this change,” as Winfrey put it.
Gates’ response shows once again that “AI” is and will continue to be used, in public messaging, as one of the ways to justify and normalize the increasing entanglement between the government and powerful private entities.
As for “misinformation,” Gates is – but of course – worried, and it seems he has chosen to refer to himself as “naïve” when it comes to the earlier days of personal computing and the internet. (He has mentioned this supposed “naïve” persona in other interviews.)
And it’s important to view Gates as “naïve” back then if you’re going to believe the things he is saying now. Winfrey was interested in how what is happening around the “AI” today can be informed by what was “missed” regarding social media and the internet as a whole.
Other than branding himself as “naïve” (and ABC choosing to illustrate his comments with footage of Alex Jones and his website – to which Jones reacted with quite a few choice words), Gates said this:
“We thought the internet, the availability of information would make us all a lot more factual. The fact that people would seek out kind of a niche of misinformation, we were a bit naïve, and bringing those lessons up, let’s get ahead of this. Let’s get the politicians to be users and have a dialogue about maximizing the benefits while minimizing the negatives.”
Fellow Substacker and friend Ben Bartee covered the MSM salivating over plans to re-educate those pesky conspiracy theorists with…you guessed it, AI algorithms!
CLOSING THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS
What will become of humans who continue to act humanely with moral compasses intact? Perhaps some shall be destined to meet the same fate as Sean Bean’s character in the movie Equilibrium, where reading books is banned and poetry is punishable by death - in a dystopic future where everyone is mandated to take a daily injection to ensure they have no emotions or empathy…Wait a minute, are we already there?
Partridge: You always knew.
"But I, being poor...have only my dreams."
"I have spread my dreams under your feet. "Tread softly...because you tread
on my dreams."
I assume you dream, Preston.
Preston: I'll do what I can to see they go easy on you.
Partridge: We both know...they never go easy.
Preston: Then I'm sorry.
Partridge: No, you're not. You don't even know the meaning.
It's just a...vestigial word for a feeling you've never felt.
Don't you see, Preston?
It's gone.
Everything that makes us what we are... traded away.
Preston: There's no war. No murder.
Partridge: What is it you think we do?
Preston: No.
You've been with me.
You've seen how it can be...the jealousy, the rage.
Partridge: A heavy cost.
I'd pay it gladly.
[Gun cocks]
Don't.
[Clicks]
[Gun cocks]
[Casing rattles]
Do you dream, dear reader? Who’s feet have your spread your dreams under? Shall they tread softly on your dreams?
Will you choose to curate or curtail your own reality?
Nicholas Creed is a Bangkok based writer. Any support is greatly appreciated. If you are in a position to donate a virtual coffee or crypto, it would mean the world of difference. Paid subscribers can comment on articles, videos, and podcasts, and also receive a monthly subscriber newsletter. Email: nicholas.creed@protonmail.com to enquire about a crypto-paid discounted annual subscription.
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"The most powerful weapon on earth is narrative. Story. It always has been. It always will be."