The State of the Nation: Are We “Approaching Spiritual Death”?

01-17-2011 • rutherford.org/

Fusion centers--data collecting agencies spread throughout the country, aided by the National Security Agency--constantly monitor our communications, everything from our internet activity and web searches to text messages, phone calls and emails. This data is then fed to government agencies, which are now interconnected--the CIA to the FBI, the FBI to local police--a relationship which will make a transition to martial law that much easier. Added to this arsenal of technology, we now have a shadow government fully staffed by unelected officials, ready to take over the running of the country at a moment’s notice; secret prisons where American citizens are being snatched up and made to disappear with no access to the legal system; massive and growing databases containing information on otherwise ordinary Americans reported for such suspicious behavior as gazing at a bridge or taking a picture of a tollbooth; wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that have cost taxpayers more than $1 trillion already; and American soldiers deployed on American soil in clear violation of longstanding laws against using military personnel for law enforcement purposes within the U.S. We have evolved into a suspect society where privacy is extinct and we are no longer presumed innocent until proven guilty but rather everyone is a suspect. Moreover, as part of its “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign, the Department of Homeland Security is urging Americans to spy on one another, aided and abetted by the corporate elite. This merger of government and corporate America is a subtle move toward a total control society--one in which the government is able to track the movements of people in real time and control who does what, when and where. In exchange, the government promises to provide security and convenience, the two highly manipulative, siren-song catchwords of our modern age.