Note about this article: If you search for the term “Slippery Slope”, You’ll notice that this term is now associated with a fallacy argument. As we move closer to a world based on Authoritarian agendas. Words and phrases will take on new meanings. Similar to what happened with the Holocaust. The point is that people will point out that X doesn’t always lead to Y. And in some cases that’s true, but like a lot of arguments like these, it’s a way to dismiss the underlying truth of when it does happen. You can see this happening with license plate reader cameras that were placed in the United States all across the country without consent of the people, to how ad tech was mainly used as a way to advertise to people and now its soon to been used to by ICE to target minorities. Don’t let the meaning of words convince you that most alarms about Authoritarian agendas are a nothing burger. The threat is real and is happening in real time.
While listening to “The Mom Test” Audible book over my headset, it suddenly changed to an audio advert with an announcement for a new book.
Confused, I pulled out my phone and was presented with:
Wait, what?!?
I looked it up; it’s a thing.
Amazon is inserting ads into paid audiobooks. For some reason, I didn’t get the memo when they started this practice on Prime Video.
As I didn’t really use it that much, it didn’t register. But when this ad arrived on a book I just purchased to learn about sales, suddenly it became all too real.
Don’t get me wrong, this is not exactly a surprise. I have been in the privacy and freedom consciousness sphere for as long as I can remember. But somehow this finally made me realize we have crossed a line.
In Blade Runner 2049, it opens overlooking the California landscape. Except it’s not land. It’s a series of structures covering a landscape underneath.
K is a cop who retires his own kind. Throughout the film, he starts to realize that life is meaningless without the freedom to make difficult choices. This is uncanny to me, because we seem to be moving into a world that looks remarkably similar to this dystopian world. I have been thinking an awful lot about Phillip K. Dick. I’m starting to wonder if his hallucinations were real. I mean a real future of what’s to come.
I arrived at my office from my walk, logged into Audible, downloaded all of my books, and initiated a format shift into a format I control.
That was the last straw. I will never use Amazon to purchase content again.
We have a difficult choice to make. We either stop supporting a world that is trying to Retire the human race, or we submit to a barren waste land.
I’m reminded of that exchange between Marva and Cassian from the Andor TV series in season 1 Episode 7 when the Empire took over Ferix after the Aldhani heist (Shortened for readability):
Cassian, “You said it yourself, Is all come undone. There’s an Imperial barracks on Rix Road. You want to live under that?”
Marva, “It’s happening everywhere’”
Cassian, “Well, we’ll find a place they haven’t ruined yet.”
Marva, “I’m already there. That place is in my head”
Cassian, “Whats left to keep you here?”
Marva, “The Rebellion.”
Cassian, “What?!?”
Marva, “Ferrix has been hiding long enough.”
Cassian, “So now you are taking on the Empire?”
Marva, “Laugh if you want to.”
Cassian, “Who’s laughing? This is madness!”
Marva, “No its not. It’s overdue. And probably doomed, and I’m too old, and I don’t care anymore.”
Cassian, “You can’t beat them Marva.”
Marva, “Not if I run away!”
Acting individually for the greater whole might not yield any results, at least not for a while. Maybe not at all. But I can’t face myself if I don’t try. At the end of my life, I don’t want to be looking back on all these abuses and thinking to myself, “I did nothing”. What about you?
At this point, I am putting these abuses down in writing for history’s sake, for the next generation. The only thing that maybe I am good at.
If we allow this to continue, this death by a million cuts will cover the world in complete darkness. To the point where we won’t own anything, and everything, even our attention, will be in the hands of narcissistic criminals. At the same time, Where does it begin, and where does it end? It’s like a fast-moving train, traveling to a destination unknown. How do you get on something like this and change it’s direction? I’m all ears.
Maybe all it takes is one voice in a chorus of despair: “Enough is Enough!” Sure, it might continue, for one, maybe two generations, but not forever. Eventually, this kind of practice is going to catch up to a generation that will have nothing to do with it. But there comes a point in time when we have to act for the future of humanity.
This is your fight. Don’t accept what’s given to you.
- Mahatma Gandhi changed the world in 1930 when he led a march to the sea to make salt in defiance of Briton’s taxation laws.
- In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. articulated a vision of radical equality that inspired the Civil Rights Act.
Do you want to live in a world where we allow a few companies to destroy everything? Do we stand up and do the right thing? Isn’t that even possible today?
It starts with a small but difficult decision,
Are you willing to sacrifice your entertainmentTo keep up, maintain, to keep (someone) in a certain frame of mind. See https://www.etymonline.com/word/entertain for authority and control over your own life?
Or do we maintain the status quo and enter our new dystopian reality without resistance?
We have a choice…
Remember that. And know this: the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance, will have flooded the banks of the Empire’s authority, and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege.1*
Remember this: Try.*
I’m Scott Larson. I’ve been a technology enthusiast since I was 10 years old, and today I repair computers and help people solve everyday tech challenges. I write about creative and technical projects along with occasional philosophical musings. If this article was of interest to you, sign up for my newsletter and receive notifications when new articles are published.
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Nemiks Message: From the TV Series “Andor” ↩︎