As IF Times

source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/appeals-court-orders-flynn-case-be-dismissed-after-years-long-legal-saga

One of the most overused phrases that we hear these days is, “the new normal”.  This characterization has been applied to changes to many heretofore traditional behaviors that were “normal” for average people.  Now, with the militancy of activists of all stripes, standard rules of societal behavior and conduct are being replaced by newly minted acceptable ones.  As dumb as many of these “new norms” are, given time, they creep in to be part of accepted behavior.  It wasn’t that long ago that men held doors open for women.  This is no longer the norm.  In fact, these days, you’d have to be cautious of even assuming someone is a man or a woman. Think about photographs of people:  The new norm is for people to express a defiant sneer whereas not that long ago,  people smiled pleasantly during their photos.

The recent (and on going) Covid scare has resulted in new rules governing all manner of social interaction and of work, whereby people are segregated like eggs in zip locked cartons to ensure that they don’t physically interact.  All social activity is now to be done remotely via online linkups; the new normal.  Amazingly, the general populace has meekly subscribed to this “new normal” by acquiescing to this most oppressive edict for humans since Mao Tse Tung introduced the fashionable Mao suit.  Ostensibly, this new normal is being mandated to ensure the health and safety of the populace. It’s quite amazing what governments can get away with when policies and laws are framed as “for the safety of the people”.

Fortunately, this edict has not prevented the long hallowed American tradition of protesting, rioting, looting, murder and general mayhem by certain segments of the population.  The Seattle mayor in fact lauds this behavior and characterizes this as the summer of love, 2020.  As in most things, there are always exceptions to the rule and if you get enough people to support your cause, exceptions will be made.  In fact, amidst the Covid lockdown, social rioting to address oppression has achieved an all time high in popularity and participation.  It’s so popular and inclusive, even the entitled and privileged are participating.  Large enclaves of cities have been sectioned off and declared as autonomous zones from their parent cities; thereby manifesting the new normal.  Laws against this kind of thing are openly flouted since, well, this is the new normal.  As we now know, laws are only for the law abiding.

This “new normal” has reached into many other parts of our society as well.  As we observe in the linked article, long established “norms” of legal behavior were disregarded by a judge Sullivan presiding over the highly partisan Michael Flynn case.  Unwilling to follow established legal protocols, to which he must  subscribe since he is employed as a jurist, he chose to try to establish a new normal by bringing in another jurist to advise instead.  Put bluntly, he all but states, “I think he’s guilty, what do you think?”   In essence, he didn’t like the law, so he’s trying to change the rules.  This may establish the precedent for all future legal actions since it’s now been established that the judge can be a partisan and not just an impartial adjudicator. The new normal.

We can extrapolate this principle into the new normal anticipated to be implemented in professional sports.  The NFL is at the forefront of the social justice movement now, but many other pro sports organizations will surely follow in lockstep, *cough cough Nascar*,  The new fairness will usher in a new normal of socially equitable and politically correct competition.  During a game in which the home team is losing badly to the visitors, the partisan sentiment of the home crowd will allow rules to not be applied to the home boys until they win. Maybe goal lines can be moved.  Maybe the homies get 6 downs instead of 4.  Maybe the visitors can’t cross beyond their own half of the field.  Maybe the visitors have to use a bowling ball during their possession.  Most importantly, no white on black violence.

The resulting spectacle may be as interesting to watch as organized nose picking, but at least we know in the end that the home team gets their way.  It’s the new normal.

Source: Meet Facebooks Libra, a digital currency for the social network – CBS News

Hopefully this ‘invention’ will be like New Coke; a product in search of an audience.  As the pervasive creep of the big social media networks is allowed to reach further into our lives, digital currency is apparently the next frontier for them.  It’s all about convenience for the customers they’ll say…what can go wrong?

This is backwards evolution of the financial system.  Over a century ago, many different banks would issue notes that were only fungible at their outlets; others were not accepted. With the passage of time, the nation evolved to create a common coin of the realm so that the currency could be used anywhere in the country.  This was the ultimate form of freedom and democracy since your money was as good as the next guy’s.  Someone could refuse your business but they certainly would not refuse your money.

This concept extrapolated to the credit system as credit cards were able to extend the reach of a consumer society by eliminating the hassle of carrying around bundles of cash.  Cash and its related credit card transactions were agnostic to consumers and vendors.  The rise of the influence of large social media companies introduces a new dynamic to this agnostic system.

As we are aware, corporations now wade boldly into the social justice business, ‘encouraging’ but actually pushing social ‘values’ which they deem to be acceptable.  You practically need a portable spreadsheet to determine which company is pro or against some issue.  Issues such as animal rights, fair trade practices, LGBT issues, environmental concerns, civil rights and of course political leanings now enter into the routine of making a simple  purchase.  It’s now difficult to buy something and not be given a side serving of sanctimony. Hey man, I just want to buy a coffee, I don’t need a lecture on global warming.

Thus far, this PC landscape has been only a minor annoyance as you are still free to do your business while controlling your eye rolls.  The issuance of online currency will move the control of the very many to the hands of a very small few to a whole new level.  Think about it.  If your online presence offends the sensibilities of those that monitor these kinds of things (and they do monitor this stuff), then they could conceivably deny your access to your digital money.  If you’ve said something online which offended  the accepted zeitgeist of the ‘community’, you can be blackballed.

This is not some unwarranted paranoia.  In fact, large banks have already decided to ban businesses that are active in the firearms industry.  If banks, which are quasi utilities can do that, why wouldn’t actual utility companies be able to deny you service because you wanted to buy rib eye steaks and they happened to be PETA supporters?  Why couldn’t they deny you service because you didn’t recycle?  We can easily see the logical extension of big brother monitoring your spending habits based on your on line persona.  Anyone remember the ‘big brother” apple advertisements from the ’80’s?  George Orwell wrote prescient dystopian warning satire during the 1930’s and eerily, the social network behemoths have taken his writings to be operations manuals.

We can never completely stop the emergence of Dr. Evils; unfortunately, it’s a part of human nature.  What people can do however is not willingly submit to the dystopian world they plan for us.  They can reject the social pressure to be a cog in someone’s digital empires.  They can reject the pressure to conform by their unthinking peers.  As in The Matrix films, be Neo, reject the agent Smiths.  Use cash.