Jun 18, 2012

Surveillance Society Surging

Jim FletcherBy Jim Fletcher
Prophecy Matters

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America is about to experience what citizenry in Britain have been going through for some time. The assault on U.S. privacy has been undergoing a metamorphosis for decades, but until very recently, the barriers have seemed to at least hold back unbridled Big Brotherism in this nation.

One journalist reported from England in a chapter for one of my books:

If you want to be a film star, come to Britain. We’re all on camera. All you have to do is walk through any town or drive down any road and you are watched, filmed, and monitored. When my wife, Pat, and I tour America , we feel neglected because the roadside cameras are no longer ever-present—not yet. As the world moves towards a “Big Brother” society beyond the nightmares of author George Orwell, who predicted a world in which the state watched everyone in his 1948 classic novel, 1984, it is like we are inmates of a high-tech prison. Big Brother really is watching us in Europe. The rest of the world is not far behind. (Alan Franklin, "Big Brother is Watching," The Departure).

It seems that now Alan and Pat won’t be sensing that they are neglected when they come to America. Strides are being made—in the name of commerce—to make sure that we are all on Candid Camera.

Rand Paul

Drone Invasion

We have been listening to the debate for some time now about the drones that have spied on, then, in some cases, hunted down and taken out high-priority terrorist targets in some places in the Middle East. Now, the drones are being seen and reported more and more in the homeland. The most recent flap has been brought to our attention by U.S. Senator Rand Paul, who says such surveillance is becoming akin to violating the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. That’s the one that, in part, prohibits illegal searches and seizures of private citizens and their properties.

This past week, a story surfaced outlining the technology’s invasive nature.

Planes able to photograph sunbathers in their back gardens are being deployed by Google and Apple. The U.S. technology giants are racing to produce aerial maps so detailed they can show up objects just four inches wide. But campaigners say the technology is a sinister development that brings the surveillance society a step closer. Google admits it has already sent planes over cities while Apple has acquired a firm using spy-in-the-sky technology that has been tested on at least 20 locations, including London. Apple’s military-grade cameras are understood to be so powerful they could potentially see into homes through skylights and windows. The technology is similar to that used by intelligence agencies in identifying terrorist targets in Afghanistan. (Vanessa Allen, "Software Giants Will Use Military-Grade Cameras to Take Powerful Satellite Images," Rapture Ready News, 07:04)

People have embraced their satellite-to-vehicle capabilities in searching out locations while traveling. Browsers on the Internet love sometimes taking the virtual tours down the streets of cities throughout the nation. The convenience and entertainment presented by technology continues their desensitizing effects on the American public to the dangers inherent in such surveillance advances.

Global Control

Homeland security agencies—which have proliferated since 9/11 and the radical Islamist attacks—seem oblivious to complaints that they are becoming increasingly invasive. It is troubling, although thoroughly fascinating, to witness how global control, long ago prophesied by the only source who knows the end from the beginning, is coming to fulfillment in our time.

It is no longer difficult to imagine how Antichrist and his regime of absolute control will have the technological facilities to keep tabs on every victim during the Tribulation. Developments in the global monetary world are moving along the necessity of bringing about that end-times system of control. The powers that be must find a way to make all conform to a singular methodology in transacting business. There must be a completely changed economic order in order to establish even a modicum of stability to a world gone mad in terms of economic insanity.

Satan moves malevolently on the minds of mankind, as the apostle Paul told us:

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).

All people of planet earth must be made to cooperate with the regulations the powers dictate. This means everyone must be observed at all times, which is where this is all leading. In my view, this is the major reason for the surging surveillance society we are considering here.