You Want a Picture of the Future? Imagine a Boot Stamping on Your Face
By John W. Whitehead
July 03, 2017
“The Internet is watching us
now. If they want to. They can see what sites you visit. In the future,
television will be watching us, and customizing itself to what it knows about
us. The thrilling thing is, that will make us feel we’re part of the medium. The scary thing is, we’ll lose our
right to privacy. An ad will appear in the air around us, talking directly to
us.”—Director Steven Spielberg, Minority Report
We have arrived, way ahead of
schedule, into the dystopian future dreamed up by such science fiction writers
as George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Margaret Atwood and Philip K. Dick.
Much like Orwell’s Big Brother
in 1984, the government and its corporate spies now watch our every
move.
Much like Huxley’s A
Brave New World, we are churning out a society of watchers who “have their
liberties taken away from them, but … rather enjoy it, because they [are]
distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing.”
And in keeping with Philip K.
Dick’s darkly prophetic vision of a dystopian police state—which became the
basis for Steven Spielberg’s futuristic
thriller Minority Report which was released 15 years ago—we are now trapped into a
world in which the government is all-seeing, all-knowing and all-powerful, and
if you dare to step out of line, dark-clad police SWAT teams and pre-crime
units will crack a few skulls to bring the populace under control.
Minority Report is set in the year 2054,
but it could just as well have taken place in 2017.
Seemingly taking its cue from
science fiction, technology has moved so fast in the short time since Minority
Report premiered in 2002 that what once seemed futuristic no longer
occupies the realm of science fiction.
Incredibly, as the various
nascent technologies employed and shared by the government and corporations
alike—facial recognition, iris scanners, massive databases, behavior prediction
software, and so on—are incorporated into a complex, interwoven cyber network
aimed at tracking our movements, predicting our thoughts and controlling our
behavior, Spielberg’s unnerving vision of the future is fast becoming our
reality.
Both worlds—our present-day reality and
Spielberg’s celluloid vision of the future—are characterized by widespread
surveillance, behavior prediction technologies, data mining, fusion centers,
driverless cars, voice-controlled homes, facial recognition systems, cybugs and
drones, and predictive policing (pre-crime) aimed at capturing would-be
criminals before they can do any damage.
Surveillance cameras are
everywhere. Government agents listen in on our telephone calls and read our
emails. Political correctness—a philosophy that discourages diversity—has
become a guiding principle of modern society.
The courts have shredded the
Fourth Amendment’s protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. In
fact, SWAT teams battering down doors without search warrants and FBI agents
acting as a secret police that investigate dissenting citizens are common
occurrences in contemporary America.
We are increasingly ruled by
multi-corporations wedded to the police state. Much of the population is either
hooked on illegal drugs or ones prescribed by doctors. And bodily privacy and
integrity has been utterly eviscerated by a prevailing view that Americans have
no rights over what happens to their bodies during an encounter with government
officials, who are allowed to search, seize, strip, scan, spy on, probe, pat
down, taser, and arrest any individual at any time and for the slightest
provocation.
All of this has come about with
little more than a whimper from a clueless American populace largely comprised
of nonreaders and television and internet zombies. But we have been warned
about such an ominous future in novels and movies for years.
The following 15 films may be
the best representation of what we now face as a society.
Fahrenheit 451 (1966). Adapted from Ray
Bradbury’s novel and directed by Francois Truffaut, this film depicts a
futuristic society in which books are banned, and firemen ironically are called
on to burn contraband books—451 Fahrenheit being the temperature at which books
burn. Montag is a fireman who develops a conscience and begins to question his
book burning. This film is an adept metaphor for our obsessively politically
correct society where virtually everyone now pre-censors speech. Here, a
brainwashed people addicted to television and drugs do little to resist
governmental oppressors.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). The plot of Stanley
Kubrick’s masterpiece, as based on an Arthur C. Clarke short story, revolves
around a space voyage to Jupiter. The astronauts soon learn, however, that the
fully automated ship is orchestrated by a computer system—known as HAL 9000—which
has become an autonomous thinking being that will even murder to retain
control. The idea is that at some point in human evolution, technology in the
form of artificial intelligence will become autonomous and that human beings
will become mere appendages of technology. In fact, at present, we are seeing
this development with massive databases generated and controlled by the
government that are administered by such secretive agencies as the National
Security Agency and sweep all websites and other information devices collecting
information on average citizens. We are being watched from cradle to grave.
Planet of the Apes (1968). Based on Pierre
Boulle’s novel, astronauts crash on a planet where apes are the masters and
humans are treated as brutes and slaves. While fleeing from gorillas on
horseback, astronaut Taylor is shot in the throat, captured and housed in a
cage. From there, Taylor begins a journey wherein the truth revealed is that
the planet was once controlled by technologically advanced humans who destroyed
civilization. Taylor’s trek to the ominous Forbidden Zone reveals the startling
fact that he was on planet earth all along. Descending into a fit of rage at
what he sees in the final scene, Taylor screams: “We finally really did it. You
maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you.” The lesson is obvious here, but will we
listen? The script, although rewritten, was initially drafted by Rod Serling
and retains Serling’s Twilight Zone-ish ending.
THX 1138 (1970). George Lucas’
directorial debut, this is a somber view of a dehumanized society totally
controlled by a police state. The people are force-fed drugs to keep them
passive, and they no longer have names but only letter/number combinations such
as THX 1138. Any citizen who steps out of line is quickly brought into
compliance by robotic police equipped with “pain prods”—electro-shock batons.
Sound like tasers?
A Clockwork Orange (1971). Director Stanley
Kubrick presents a future ruled by sadistic punk gangs and a chaotic government
that cracks down on its citizens sporadically. Alex is a violent punk who finds
himself in the grinding, crushing wheels of injustice. This film may accurately
portray the future of western society that grinds to a halt as oil supplies
diminish, environmental crises increase, chaos rules, and the only thing left
is brute force.
Soylent Green (1973). Set in a
futuristic overpopulated New York City, the people depend on synthetic foods
manufactured by the Soylent Corporation. A policeman investigating a murder
discovers the grisly truth about what soylent green is really made of. The
theme is chaos where the world is ruled by ruthless corporations whose only
goal is greed and profit. Sound familiar?
Blade Runner (1982). In a 21st century Los
Angeles, a world-weary cop tracks down a handful of renegade “replicants”
(synthetically produced human slaves). Life is now dominated by
mega-corporations, and people sleepwalk along rain-drenched streets. This is a
world where human life is cheap, and where anyone can be exterminated at will
by the police (or blade runners). Based upon a Philip K. Dick novel, this
exquisite Ridley Scott film questions what it means to be human in an inhuman
world.
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984). The best adaptation of
Orwell’s dark tale, this film visualizes the total loss of freedom in a world
dominated by technology and its misuse, and the crushing inhumanity of an
omniscient state. The government controls the masses by controlling their
thoughts, altering history and changing the meaning of words. Winston Smith is
a doubter who turns to self-expression through his diary and then begins
questioning the ways and methods of Big Brother before being re-educated in a
most brutal fashion.
Brazil (1985). Sharing a similar
vision of the near future as 1984 and Franz Kafka’s
novel The Trial, this is arguably director Terry Gilliam’s best
work, one replete with a merging of the fantastic and stark reality. Here, a
mother-dominated, hapless clerk takes refuge in flights of fantasy to escape
the ordinary drabness of life. Caught within the chaotic tentacles of a police
state, the longing for more innocent, free times lies behind the vicious surface
of this film.
They Live (1988). John Carpenter’s
bizarre sci-fi social satire action film assumes the future has already
arrived. John Nada is a homeless person who stumbles across a resistance
movement and finds a pair of sunglasses that enables him to see the real world
around him. What he discovers is a world controlled by ominous beings who
bombard the citizens with subliminal messages such as “obey” and “conform.”
Carpenter manages to make an effective political point about the
underclass—that is, everyone except those in power. The point: we, the
prisoners of our devices, are too busy sucking up the entertainment trivia
beamed into our brains and attacking each other up to start an effective
resistance movement.
The Matrix (1999). The story centers on a
computer programmer Thomas A. Anderson, secretly a hacker known by the alias
“Neo,” who begins a relentless quest to learn the meaning of “The
Matrix”—cryptic references that appear on his computer. Neo’s search leads him
to Morpheus who reveals the truth that the present reality is not what it seems
and that Anderson is actually living in the future—2199. Humanity is at war
against technology which has taken the form of intelligent beings, and Neo is
actually living in The Matrix, an illusionary world that appears to be set in
the present in order to keep the humans docile and under control. Neo soon
joins Morpheus and his cohorts in a rebellion against the machines that use
SWAT team tactics to keep things under control.
Minority Report (2002). Based on a short story
by Philip K. Dick and directed by Steven Spielberg, the setting is 2054 where
PreCrime, a specialized police unit, apprehends criminals before they can
commit the crime. Captain Anderton is the chief of the Washington, DC, PreCrime
force which uses future visions generated by “pre-cogs” (mutated humans with
precognitive abilities) to stop murders. Soon Anderton becomes the focus of an
investigation when the precogs predict he will commit a murder. But the system
can be manipulated. This film raises the issue of the danger of technology
operating autonomously—which will happen eventually if it has not already
occurred. To a hammer, all the world looks like a nail. In the same way, to a
police state computer, we all look like suspects. In fact, before long, we all
may be mere extensions or appendages of the police state—all suspects in a
world commandeered by machines.
V for Vendetta (2006). This film depicts a
society ruled by a corrupt and totalitarian government where everything is run
by an abusive secret police. A vigilante named V dons a mask and leads a
rebellion against the state. The subtext here is that authoritarian regimes
through repression create their own enemies—that is, terrorists—forcing
government agents and terrorists into a recurring cycle of violence. And who is
caught in the middle? The citizens, of course. This film has a cult following
among various underground political groups such as Anonymous, whose members
wear the same Guy Fawkes mask as that worn by V.
Children of Men (2006). This film portrays a
futuristic world without hope since humankind has lost its ability to
procreate. Civilization has descended into chaos and is held together by a
military state and a government that attempts to keep its totalitarian
stronghold on the population. Most governments have collapsed, leaving Great
Britain as one of the few remaining intact societies. As a result, millions of
refugees seek asylum only to be rounded up and detained by the police. Suicide
is a viable option as a suicide kit called Quietus is promoted on billboards
and on television and newspapers. But hope for a new day comes when a woman
becomes inexplicably pregnant.
Land of the Blind (2006). This dark political
satire is based on several historical incidents in which tyrannical rulers were
overthrown by new leaders who proved just as evil as their predecessors.
Maximilian II is a demented fascist ruler of a troubled land named Everycountry
who has two main interests: tormenting his underlings and running his country’s
movie industry. Citizens who are perceived as questioning the state are sent to
“re-education camps” where the state’s concept of reality is drummed into their
heads. Joe, a prison guard, is emotionally moved by the prisoner and renowned
author Thorne and eventually joins a coup to remove the sadistic Maximilian,
replacing him with Thorne. But soon Joe finds himself the target of the new
government.
All of these films—and the
writers who inspired them—understood what many Americans, caught up in their
partisan, flag-waving, zombified states, are still struggling to come to terms
with: that there is no such thing as a government organized for the good of the
people. Even the best intentions among those in government inevitably give way
to the desire to maintain power and control at all costs.
Eventually, as I point out in
my book Battlefield America: The War on the
American People, even the sleepwalking masses (who remain convinced that all of the bad
things happening in the police state—the police shootings, the police beatings,
the raids, the roadside strip searches—are happening to other people) will have
to wake up.
Sooner or later, the things
happening to other people will start happening to us and our loved ones.
When that painful reality
sinks in, it will hit with the force of a SWAT team crashing through your door,
a taser being aimed at your stomach, and a gun pointed at your head. And there
will be no channel to change, no reality to alter, and no manufactured farce to
hide behind.
As George Orwell warned, “If
you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face
forever.”
WC: 2467
ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD
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