2034 The Corporation Post 2012
Chapter 2 | Remembrance
Franklin sat for a moment in quietness; the frigid winter night beaming through his living room window sent a wave of cold shivers down his spine. He slumped forward feeling under the faux wooden table with his right hand.
It was still there.
He felt for the hardness of the metal fasteners he had secretly installed under the tabletop that held the file folder in place. Sliding his fingertips to the corner, he attempted to locate one of the clasps. "I would be tortured to death for these papers," he thought.
Finding one of the clips, Franklin slowly rotated it to the side. The folder began to fall from its hanging grave under the tabletop. Franklin stopped the folder's descent by quickly turning his palm upward to catch the sleeve of papers, before they fell.
In the same moment, he couldn't help from nervously glancing towards the large monitor on the living room wall to his left, opposite the small kitchen nook. "Were they watching him from the other side right now?" he wondered.
Franklin's hand remained under the table, with the folder centered in his palm - wobbling - as he did his best to keep it from falling to the floor.
Pretending not to look down, Franklin pulled his hand (and the delicately balanced folder) towards his lap from under the table.
With his free hand, Franklin adjusted the screen of his laptop on the table, hoping the action would be diversion enough to keep Security Services (who were likely watching) from noticing the file folder in his lap.
Franklin pulled his notebook to the edge of the table and adjusted the screen slightly to seem as if he were looking downward at it, though really, he was staring at the folder in his lap.
One by one, he slid the documents out with the hand under the table, until he found the precious paper he was looking for this evening. His eyes instantly caught what he had grown to know so well...
PREPARED FOR: UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
PREPARED BY: GLOBAL BUSINESS NETWORK, SAN FRANCISCO
DATE: OCTOBER 2003
An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security October 2003
Imagining the Unthinkable
The purpose of this report is to imagine the unthinkable – to push the boundaries of current research on climate change so we may better understand the potential implications on United States national security.
We have interviewed leading climate change scientists, conducted additional research, and reviewed several iterations of the scenario with these experts. The scientists support this project, but caution that the scenario depicted is extreme in two fundamental ways. First, they suggest the occurrences we outline would most likely happen in a few regions, rather than globally. Second, they say the magnitude of the event may be considerably smaller.
We have created a climate change scenario that although not the most likely, is plausible, and would challenge United States national security in ways that should be considered immediately.
It was amazing to think that the document had been prepared for what was the Department of Defense in 2003, and for the former United States Congress, years before the climate changed, and before The Corporation.
Though public, the report was completely unknown to most, as the media never truly brought the climate change warning to the attention of the masses.
The few mentions the document did receive (mostly by independent media) never made it into mainstream press.
But then again, given the way things unfolded, "clearly the report for the Department of Defense wasn't supposed to reach the citizens of America anyway," Franklin thought.
He couldn't help himself; Franklin simply had to take out his favorite page from the report foreshadowing America's future. Taking only a few moments to locate the particular sheet in the shuffle, Franklin covertly set it on the top of the stack in his lap. Then, while pretending to look towards the screen of his laptop, Franklin fell into the same passage he'd studied every night since he discovered the document fifteen years ago:
"New forms of security agreements dealing specifically with energy, food and water will also be needed. In short, while the US itself will be relatively better off and with more adaptive capacity, it will find itself in a world where Europe will be struggling internally, large numbers of refugees washing up on its shores and Asia in serious crisis over food and water. Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life."
"HA!" Franklin heard his voice escape loud and clear from his own lips. Franklin's outburst was the only sound in his apartment, other than the echo of the simultaneous newscast from his laptop and monitor. Though he could turn off his laptop, the monitors always stayed on.
The monitors endlessly spewed The Corporation's propaganda and Security Services were always watching from the other side.
"Oh!" Franklin thought, "come on man, you know they're listening..."
In the next moment of consideration, he asserted in his mind, "you might as well just blatantly look at the damn paper now; if you're caught, you're caught."
Franklin wanted to do nothing more than just set the folder on the table, in the open air, without having to hide it in his lap.
Perhaps though, Security Services might have missed his hullabaloo and were watching someone else tonight; besides, it would be ridiculous to give up hope now anyway. Taking such a stupid chance by flagrantly making the folder visible would be nonsensical, especially since he had risked his life so many times just to acquire the few pieces of real paper now sitting in his possession.
The Corporation had banned all paper products; including cash, in 2014, just after H1N5 (the Avian Flu) mutated and became airborne. The plague's evolution triggered a virulent Pandemic topping that of the Bubonic plague of 1918.
The Corporation outlawed paper money in an effort to halt the spread of pestilence. Even paper products like toilet tissue stopped rolling, though Franklin hated the new plastic composite replacement stuff, which was designed specifically for sanitary use, while repelling ink of any kind.
The paper-money ban was also the birth of the human barcodes, which were propagated as a 'vital necessity to provide greater health safety for the masses', replacing germ spreading cash, ATM, and credit cards.
One U.S. company had already been a leader in human-implantable microchips and was contracted by the U.S. Government several years before to ensure the 16-digit human bar code system was in place, 'just in case.' Looking back at history, initial Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for implantable chips surfaced in 2004, under the auspice of a more secure way for individuals to transport medical records. Really though, the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) microchips were the beginning of the end for personal freedom; soon, humans would be tracked like cargo.
Because the RFID pioneers had already been making implantable microchips to relay medical records, the ruse of requiring the tattoos for 'individual health-related data' and simply adding individual financial tracking was a no-brainer for The Corporation. Once the technology evolved to allow semi-passive RFID to actually transmit data in an active status, the human barcodes were destined for the employees of The Corporation. In effect, the 2014 money ban was simply an emergency amendment to the 2005 REAL ID legislation carried through from the defunct U.S. Government. Coincidentally, the 2005 legislation was also, where the first of the two Great Walls was born.
The barcodes were chosen over chip implants, as there were no potential cancerous tumor concerns, like the microchips, with the added benefit that the bar codes could not easily be removed from the flesh.
In addition, The Corporation determined that implanted microchips were vulnerable to over-the-air signal attacks (compromising the data held within), and tattooed barcodes were the inevitable fate for the people. Moreover, to silence potential criticism from the masses, the barcodes were publicized as 'necessary' to protect the personal and financial security of The Corporation's beloved employees from insurgents and terrorists.
The Corporation later used the H1N5 paper-money ban to make all forms of paper - even physical books - illegal too.
Holding the file folder in his lap, Franklin quickly glanced at the softness of his inside wrist; though he couldn't see it, he knew the barcode was there. So many in The Corporation (and even America before) were so adamantly opposed to immigrant rights, The Corporation simply marketed the barcodes as the only 'sure way' to keep starving refugees appearing from less nourished nations from unfairly participating in the benefits the employees were working so hard for.
In essence, the people's protectionist mind-set was the same underpinning that helped absolve their freedom. When he thought about immigration policy, it seemed Government intervention simply sabotaged the evolution of Capitalism. Franklin surmised allowing free (though controlled) immigration would seemingly force many naturalized citizens to become more educated and skilled in their businesses and trades. As most resist change, it was probably easier to just oppose open immigration, than embrace those seeking a new home. Capitalism thrives on determination, and many immigrants were sincerely driven, given they'd come from much more difficult circumstances. Many who'd been born blessed with citizenship simply did not want the competition and thus, helped fuel the fire of necessitating the barcodes.
Sadly, many of those who held the 'no immigration' argument dear possibly failed to understand why citizenship had been included in the United States Constitution in the first place. Franklin couldn't remember all the Amendments, but he did know that the right to citizenship was from the Fourteenth Amendment (1866) and was truly implemented to assist in (with the 13th and 15th Amendments) abolishing racial segregation in America. Ironically, the argument against immigrants in America - in principal - found some similarities to the Black Codes of some Southern states, post-Civil War. The bottom line in almost any immigration-related argument, is those in opposition of immigration, simply do not want 'others' in their already established communities. Franklin cringed as he wondered if humanity had really made any progress beyond the mindset of the 1800's, as it entered the 21st century.
Franklin was old enough to remember when the U.S. Senate passed the REAL ID bill in 2005, which was the quiet beginning wherein all citizens were mandated to carry uniform machine-readable Federal ID cards. Oddly, the 2005 Real ID bill was also, where the Great Wall of Mexico originated; with construction starting in what was San Diego. Sadly, the then citizens of America failed to take notice of the event as well.
In The Corporation, employees were tracked not just by the barcodes, but through the endless biometric scanners as well. There were the retinal scanners, facial and voice recognition scanners and of course, the ever-present fingerprint scanners too. Every time Franklin looked into the retinal scanner at work, he wondered if they would be able to tell if he'd been breathing a little harder lately - all on account of the illegal cigarettes he'd found in the mysterious junk shop hidden in an alley, one year ago. There were 20 in the unopened pack when he made the purchase with his illegal cash. Franklin hated to think what would happen if he were to be caught with the toxic cancer-sticks. Surely, Security Services would deem his fondness for the smokes as 'insurgency.'
Regardless, once a month, he would pull the pack from the back of his toilet (where he'd hidden the outlawed cash too), completely conscious of the fact that he was about to engage in a terrorist activity. Just out of sight from the monitor in his living room, he would hide in-between his coat rack and the window, just enough so potential onlookers from the buildings across the street, or from the street down below, couldn't see him.
He had to hide while he puffed, for if one of his neighbors (or their children) were to see him engaging in the illegal activity, they'd call Security Services in nothing flat.
Fearing his only neighbors on the floor - the Johnson's - would smell the smoke, Franklin had devised what he thought was an ingenious plan. Standing just slightly out of view of the open window, beyond the living room monitor, leaning against the wall, he would cautiously blow the smoke into one of the arms of his overcoats, which he had stuffed with synthetic bath tissue. At the same time, Franklin would pinch the cuff of the coat with his free hand - ever so slightly - in an effort to arrest any smoke attempting to escape. In addition, Franklin would always crack the window to the fullest extent allowed by law: two inches.
These moments, the moments when he inhaled freedom...made his head rush. Really, the cigarettes made him feel horrible; heavy, sick to his stomach and dizzy. The cigarettes were really about something else though. The smokes symbolized being able to make his own choices about his own life.
Though unhealthy, his quiet puffs were moments in time when Franklin felt like The Corporation was not dictating his independence; something the people had credulously given away, so long ago.
Endnotes
Schwartz, Peter and Randall, Doug: Imagining the Unthinkable, October 2003.
An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security - Accessed May 18, 2008. Supplements 1.1 http://www.gbn.com/GBNDocumentDisplayServlet.srv?aid=26231&url=/UploadDocumentDisplayServlet.srv?id=28566
Schwartz, Peter and Randall, Doug: Imagining the Unthinkable, October 2003.
An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security - Accessed May 18, 2008. Supplements 1.1 http://www.gbn.com/GBNDocumentDisplayServlet.srv?aid=26231&url=/UploadDocumentDisplayServlet.srv?id=28566
National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza; Homeland Security Council; United States White House Briefing.
November 2005. Page 3.
"The Strategy will provide a framework for future U.S. Government planning efforts that is consistent with The National Security Strategy and the National Strategy for Homeland Security. It recognizes that preparing for and responding to a pandemic cannot be viewed as a purely federal responsibility, and that the nation must have a system of plans at all levels of government and in all sectors outside of government that can be integrated to address the pandemic threat. It is guided by the following principles: • The federal government will use all instruments of national power to address the pandemic threat."
WHO global influenza preparedness plan. World Health Organization, Page 6.
"On average, three pandemics per century have been documented since the 16th century, occurring at intervals of 10–50 years. In the 20th century, pandemics occurred in 1918, 1957 and 1968. The pandemic of 1918 is estimated to have killed more than 40 million people in less than one year, with peak mortality rates occurring in people aged 20–45 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3 years. The pandemics of 1957 and 1968 were milder (1–4 million estimated deaths, primarily in traditional risk groups such as the elderly), but many countries nevertheless experienced strains on health-care resources. If an influenza pandemic virus were to appear again similar to the one that struck in 1918, even taking into account the advances in medicine since then, unparalleled tolls of illness and death could be expected. Air travel might hasten the spread of a new virus, and decrease the time available for preparing interventions. Health-care systems could be rapidly overburdened, economies strained, and social order disrupted."
http://www.who.int/csr/resources/publications/influenza/WHO_CDS_CSR_GIP_2005_5.pdf
CDC Influenza Pandemic Operation Plan (OPLAN), January 11, 2008.
Department of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Page 6.
1. The initial responsibility for a domestic pandemic response rests with State, local, territorial, and tribal (SLTT) authorities.
2. A pandemic will increase the likelihood of sudden and potentially significant gaps in public services and safety.
3. A severe pandemic will overwhelm existing healthcare capacities in the U.S. and result in a large number of deaths.
4. The CDC Director can increase the response posture of the Director's Emergency Operations Center (DEOC) at any time. For planning purposes it is assumed it will be manned at the "Alert Mode" upon declaration of World Health Organization (WHO) Phase 4 and United States Government (USG) Stage 2.
5. Under certain scenarios included within WHO Phases 4 - 6 (USG Stages 2-6), some of the usual functions and activities within CDC will be significantly reduced or ceased in order to permit a "surge" to accomplish CDC's essential pandemic functions and public health responsibilities and, within organizational capabilities, to support critical SLTT public health functions."
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic/OPLAN/BaseOPLAN.pdf
VeriChip: Company Website Technology Profile. Accessed May, 2008.
"The only auto-ID technology platform providing data collection, location awareness, and decision processing to any application leveraging one or more auto-ID tag technologies (e.g. active RFID, passive RFID, bar code, Wi-Fi)." http://www.verichipcorp.com/content/company/our_technology
Greene, Thomas. Feds approve human RFID implants. October 14, 2004.
The A Register. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/14/human_rfid_implants/
Halamka , John Halamka MDa, Juelsb , Ari, Stubblefield , Adam MDc, and Westhues, Jonathan MDc. The Security Implications of VeriChip Cloning Journal of the American Medical Informatics AssociationVolume 13, Issue 6, November-December 2006, Pages 601-607.
Gregory, Anthony. In Defense of Open Immigration. January 21, 2005. The Future of Freedom Foundation. http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0410e.asp
REAL ID Act of 2005; Immigrant Security Standards bill (identified by CRS), H.R.418 - Passed: April 5, 2005. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.00418:
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