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Jokes aside, I really don’t think people realize what we’re walking into with this mass surveillance… I mentioned this to a friend, he thought I was talking like a paranoid schizophrenic, and “doncha know how many people they’d need to monitor everyone?” I just replied… “they don’t need people anymore. Computer storage and word triggers.”
All in a searchable database.
At this point the usual question “who are ‘they’?”
The prospect of future citizens being tagged and tracked 24/7 is not far away. We already microchip pets and have tracking devices in our cars and phones. We are most of the way there.
Such a conversation usually falls back into “it’s a democracy” and it won’t happen here. In fact, most countries are a few weeks away from a potential dictatorship and all it takes is careful manouevering of resources and casus belli.
The USA’s big monitoring operation is in Utah I believe. The computing power there is massive, and American enterprises such as Facebook and Google are probably all too willing to hand over the data.
This idea really has me thinking…we are told that the telestial kingdom is even better than earth as we know it. And the telestial kingdom is where all the evil people go. Pretty damning for this earthly existence, isn’t it? I’ve been watching an endless stream of Forensic Files (a TV show that describes how science has caught and convicted murderers. 21 minutes and you get all the facts fast). You watch 20 or 30 of those episodes and it seems to exaggerate the amount of evil in the world — murderers, adulterers, rapists, serial killers, mentally ill people, terrorists, robbers, thieves, poisoners, evil attorneys, gold diggers, prostitutes, drug addicts, husband and wife killers, arsonists, overzealous policemen….After watching the show I wondered how I’ve survived so many decades without being a victim of violent crime.
And I fear for my children, particularly my young attractive daughter.
We may well be in a form of hell right now, but for some, it can be quite a fulfilling experience,
and we know it’s not permanent. There are still a lot of good people, and most are good, in my view, so I don’t think we are in hell just yet. But elements of hell exist on earth. I think a true hell, will be a lot like being a maximum security prison full of narcissists and people who lack empathy. Or in a state of constant pain or a quadraplegic or person with ALS who can’t move. Or living in the midst of human trafficking or an impoverished, crime ridden area of the world where even good people are forced to steal to survive. That is hell on earth. My wife and I watched “Queen of Katwe” on Netflix this weekend. It is a rags to modest living (not “riches”) story. My wife commented what an uplifting story it was. She was taken back on my comment that, “it was great to see one family get out of abject poverty, but I can only think about the millions of others that are stuck and have no means to even improve their life.” It is just the way I am. There are a lot of reasons for poverty – economic exploitation, wars, agricultural collapse (drought, disease etc), overpopulation, lack of work – but yes the extreme version is hellish. I think a lot of people in the developed world forget about how poor the majority of humans are… yet the odd thing is that some of them are happy – not happy about their circumstances obviously, but have loving families, a vibrant culture etc, things not universal in the west. SilentDawning wrote:This idea really has me thinking…we are told that the telestial kingdom is even better than earth as we know it. And the telestial kingdom is where all the evil people go. Pretty damning for this earthly existence, isn’t it?
Not necessarily; while some of us would be blissfully happy with eternity in any place that lacks disease, scarcity and pain, if everyone gets to keep their ego, many people will create their own hell even there, simply from the belief that they should be in a higher kingdom.
If you’ve ever worked in a jail or prison for a career like I do, then it’s very understandable to believe that this is Hell. It’s simply mind-boggling how “children of God” can behave like animals and do such sick and heinous things to others. It’s no wonder the Lord has to burn the Earth prior to the Second Coming…….it’s basically FUBAR. From what I understand, Hell is a literal place where the truly wicked go to suffer for their own sins prior to entering spirit prison. This is for people who have victimized others in very sinful ways (sex offenders, murderers, etc.).
UberDan wrote:
If you’ve ever worked in a jail or prison for a career like I do, then it’s very understandable to believe that this is Hell. It’s simply mind-boggling how “children of God” can behave like animals and do such sick and heinous things to others. It’s no wonder the Lord has to burn the Earth prior to the Second Coming…….it’s basically FUBAR. From what I understand, Hell is a literal place where the truly wicked go to suffer for their own sins prior to entering spirit prison. This is for people who have victimized others in very sinful ways (sex offenders, murderers, etc.).
My home teacher did time in prison. He told me that he had one inmate who murdered another inmate because the victim inmate took his honey bun. Some end up in solitary confinement for years with only an hour outside per day…
I personally would rather take the death penalty than live like that. In that sense, I believe Hell is on earth for some of us. But there are also many spots that are Zion-like. I have experienced those too….one such experience in my family this evening, for example where everyone was laughing, being themselves, and talking about wholesome experiences and things.
If you look at mormon theology (as I understand it), you have outer darkness at the bottom end, then earth, the telestial kingom, the terrestrial, and the celestial. There was lore going around that the telestial kingdom is a better place than earth. So, that would imply that we are only one step better than outer darkness.
But who knows — I haven’t researched what the telestial kingdom is like. I will say that a place populated by the murderers, rapists and others (entirely) seems like a worse place than where there is a mix of good and evil people. I am undecided about the opening question, but believe there are some pretty hellish places on earth right now.
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