Okay, so a totalitarian system based on satellite systems, implants and/or Dick Tracy wrist-watches is technically feasible, and will in fact be "generating a positive cash flow" by the year 2000. This hardly proves the impending rise of the Antichrist, which will begin incorporating all of humanity under its reign by "marking" each and every one of us, from Indiana to Indonesia.
Indeed, such a system would have to be driven by a government agenda, and would have to be introduced via the time-tested method of gradualism. Put the frog in a pan of scalding water, and he'll try to jump out as quick as he can. Put the frog in a pan of pleasantly lukewarm water and turn the burner up slowly, and he'll just sit there until it's too late to escape.
A possible stepping stone to the Mark of the Beast is the telemetric ID card. It is worth noting that many ID card
manufacturers, such as Texas Instruments, are also in the implantable transponder business.
ID cards already serve many relatively innocuous purposes in America and abroad. Many university campuses have incorporated food debit cards, photocopying center debit cards, and student ID cards into a master "One" card, to eliminate the waste and hassle of keeping track of so many different pieces of one-use plastic. Another example: high school kids in Superior, Wisconsin now use debit cards instead of lunch tickets in the cafeteria.
Such ID cards are efficient, cheap, and easily distributed. The potential for abuse is directly proportional to the centralization of the system, and the extent to which data collected within the system is shared with government and corporate databases. All of these systems, no matter how harmless, are geared towards keeping certain people "in" the system, and certain people "out." After all, that's the whole point.
No man may buy or sell save he who has the mark.
The credit card has also been suggested as a possible candidate for Mark of the Beast. If you refuse to take part in the credit system, then you run the risk of quite literally being shut out of the economic system. Have you ever tried to buy a car without a credit history? How about a house? And if you fail to meet your payments in an egregious manner -- that is, if you "abuse" the system -- then you may be severely punished when you apply for a loan later in life.
Furthermore, all credit clearing houses, such as American Express and VISA, are regulated by a master bank in Switzerland. The computer complex used to track billions of credit transactions worldwide is nicknamed "The Beast," and it appends a three-digit master number to the beginning of each series of digits in an account transaction number. Can you guess what that number is? Yep. 666.
Perhaps it's just a coincidence, or someone's bad idea of a joke. Regardless, although it is very difficult to live in America today without credit, it can be done. Despite their evils, credit cards are simply a method of economic transaction (albeit a method that allows the banking oligarchy another way to suck us dry through their debt-money system). They are registered with central databases, but these databases are not directed by a central governmental authority bent on political totalitarianism. Credit cards may be getting us used to the idea of a Mark of the Beast, but they are not Marks of the Beast in and of themselves.
Enter the National ID Card. Numerous federal proposals have arisen in recent years for registering people en masse using telemetric ID cards, and some have already come to fruition. Using every hot button from illegal immigration to gun control to health care, federal politicians have attempted to establish a national ID system, complete with photos and bar codes.
Congress' Subcommittee on Appropriations has even disbursed about $400 million to construct a National Identification Center to be used for law enforcement purposes -- one of which is to track and identify gun owners. By 1998, according to Congressman Neal Smith (D-Iowa), all fifty states are expected to be brought into this information system. (Divide 1998 by three and see what you get.)
One of the first federal ID programs put into practical use was the Multi-Technology Automated Reader Card -- MARC for
short, as in "Marc" of the Beast -- issued by the Department of Defense. This prototype system currently being evaluated by
the DoD will, among other things, "record, revise, and transfer medical treatment data" and store soldiers' "readiness
information," such as personal, legal and medical data.
The MARC card was developed in tandem with discussion of a National Health Care Card, part of President Clinton's scheme for "universal" health care coverage. France and Germany have incorporated all of their social services into National ID systems, and the United States may very well follow suit. The DoD's MARC web page (accessible via the weblinks accompanying this report) states, "Many potential future applications have been identified for ... various peacetime medical functions including wellness, patient administration, and credentialing; access control; Women's, Infant's, and Children's (WIC) benefits; and many more."
Many states, including New York, are already using telemetric ID cards in the distribution of welfare benefits. Pounding on another social hot button, federal legislators have proposed a national ID card and a national database to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the work force. Any employee would be required to show his prospective employer a national ID card, which the employer would use to verify work eligibility via the national database.
No man may buy or sell, save he who has the mark.
The U.S. Postal Service has proposed a "US Card," which would mediate all government services to -- and controls over -- American citizens, containing health care data, financial data, tax data, and identity data such as a PIN and a digital signature. The US Card is proposed as a "voluntary" system, but a Postal Service representative told attendees of a 1994 CardTech/SecureTech Conference that his agency was prepared to deliver hundreds of millions of US Cards within months of getting the go-ahead for the project.
So far, a mandatory, universal national ID system has remained an Orwellian figment of legislative proposal. But as telemetric card identification becomes a part of everyday life, the idea of a national ID will seem more practical and less totalitarian. And if the populace is willing to accept a national ID card, which if lost would cause tremendous inconvenience, then it is possible that a national ID biochip, which could never be misplaced or stolen, may be the next logical step in totalitarian telemetrics. After all, it sure would be convenient to simply pass your hand over the scanner at the grocery store to pay for your food, wouldn't it?
"Sir, I'm going to have to ask for your license and registration. Please stick your right hand out the window."
