On the small scale, gathering information to sell ads isn’t really that scary.  It’s useful for all parties involved, even if it is kind of creepy.  However, large scale data mining poses a serious threat to human freedom and the health of our society.  When corporations and governments have access to vast amounts of specific data on a population, they gain the power to manipulate the thoughts and behaviors of the public.  This ability consolidates their control over us and effectively eliminates our ability to choose the kind of world we live in.  In this age, democracy being transformed into corporatism, and it has become apparent that our leaders are not interested in our well-being, but rather in money, power and control.  This has a multitude of horrendous effects; the perpetual destruction of the environment, the isolation of human beings from nature and each other, the promotion of superficiality, and the waste of our resources on weapons and warfare.  I will not participate in a system that reinforces the power of the sociopathic systems of control.

For further information on this topic, check out this list of websites that the US Department of Homeland Security is monitoring.  The National Security Administration collects 74 Terabytes of data every 6 hours into its massive cryptological centers.  This is data monitoring that you cannot opt out of, and it’s worse than what Google and Facebook are doing.

It would be wise to read about Edward Bernays, the father of modern media manipulation.  Here is a link to his book Propaganda.  To quote him;

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.”

It is obvious that we are being manipulated, and that this manipulation is a form of slavery.  Our society is based off of the flawed assumption that we are separate from nature, and that we have a right to manipulate natural systems.  This is the source of suffering.  We must move beyond the systems of control to wake up, to become enlightened to our unification with each other and with nature.

(Source: infinity-imagined)