I read that the FAA will be testing drones for widespread commercial use in the U.S.

What better way to start off the new year than with a story about technology that can once again be twisted into a tool for government surveillance, disguised as a benefit to the populace.

In honor of New Year’s Day I have pulled out my tin foil conspiracy hat and dusted it off, because I don’t like drones. I don’t trust that they are remotely flown by a killing-games generation. I don’t trust the government agencies that decide how they will be used.

I also don’t trust that the “testing of drones for commercial use” over the U.S. is what they are actually being tested for, or that the information obtained from that testing won’t be turned over to agencies like the NSA.

I am especially suspicious, considering Congress recently approved as many as 30,000 drones for use in monitoring the U.S. in 7 years, that a citizens privacy and personal safety from our government will one day be lost. All under the protective umbrella excuse of anti-terrorism that requires the loss of liberties to ensure our freedom.

The FAA has selected six base sites to conduct the testing of drones in American air space. They are:

• Griffiss Airport in Rome, NY
• University of Alaska
• North Dakota Dept. of Commerce
• Texas A&M University
• Virginia Tech (collaborating with Rutgers in NJ)
• The entire state of Nevada

More news is grudgingly coming to light about our government spying on us, thanks to Edward Snowden who saw that the Constitution was being trampled by agencies like the NSA. He released proof that we were being lied to about mass data collecting that the NSA denied under oath and before Congress. Snowden was branded a criminal by the government and has found asylum in Russia – one of the few countries that can resist the economic pressures the U.S. can assert against those who don’t comply with our wishes.

What I write here may have people painting me as wearing a hat with a big red star on it, but I would answer the same was once said of those who stood against things our country was wrong in doing, that only years after would be recognized as unconstitutional. At one point in our history it was wrong to argue for the rights of Americans of Japanese descent, the rights of those accused of being a Communist, or the rights of college students to protest an unjust war in Indonesia. To do so at those periods in history made a person “un-American.”

Only in hindsight is it realized those who were following America’s Constitution values by protesting were more “American” than those who followed the American government’s misguided values.

It is wrong today to give up so willingly our right to privacy. Just as it is wrong to allow the use of the FISA Court to “oversee” the NSA without disclosure of any type of exactly what is being presented to the courts, or a chance to appeal any decision that court hands down.

It is obvious that our privacy is no longer protected by our Constitution. It’s obvious that our rights can be taken away with a mere accusation of being a “threat” to the United States, whereby you will be charged (without your knowledge) in front of a secret court, by that secret agency, and given a secret warrant. If the NSA returns (again, without your knowledge) with their secret “proof” against you and charges you with a Patriot Act violation, you could be whisked off to a secret location without a right to an attorney, or trial, for an indefinite period of time.

Over the entire 33-year period, the FISA court has granted 33,942 warrants, with only 11 denials – a rejection rate of 0.03 percent of the total requests.

How long will it be before the secret FISA Court, that is a facade for authorizing spying of American citizens by the even more secretive NSA, becomes a Star Chamber branch of government that uses drones for more than surveillance purposes.

Currently, we are being monitored through cell phones, emails, video traffic systems, video security systems, and satellites, not to mention data being collected on our spending habits and medical history. Now comes the first generation of drones that will be equipped with video. Then, it will be audio. Of course, all done for our convenience and then our safety.

Which makes me wonder if a second or third generation of drone might move from a passive role of monitoring to a more aggressive role of control.

You don’t see us as the complacent and compliant workers found in George Orwell’s novel, 1984? See how many of the similarities to that society we have already met, from the list below.

“Orwellian” is an adjective describing the situation, idea, or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free and open society.

The adjective Orwellian refers to these behaviors of The Party, especially when the Party is the State:

• Invasion of personal privacy, either directly physically or indirectly by surveillance.
• State control of its citizens’ daily life, as in a “Big Brother” society.
• Official encouragement of policies contributing to the socio-economic disintegration of the family.
• The adoration of state leaders and their Party.
• The encouragement of “doublethink”, whereby the population must learn to embrace inconsistent concepts without dissent, e.g. giving up liberty for freedom. Similar terms used are “doublespeak”, and “newspeak”.
• The revision of history in the favor of the State’s interpretation of it.
• A (generally) dystopian future.
• The use of euphemism to describe an agency, program or other concept, especially when the name denotes the opposite of what is actually occurring. E.g. A department that wages war is called the “Ministry of Peace” or a law that removes Constitutional rights obtained by patriots is called “The Patriot Act.”

For those of us with less time ahead of us than behind us, we hope to be gone before all our rights disappear, along with clean oceans, land, and air.

For those future generations that accept microchips implanted in newborns for tracking purposes (kidnapping prevention) and health monitoring (saving lives), have no worry that your every movement will be monitored and you could be denied medical insurance, or a job.

Don’t protest the government in any form or manner and you don’t have to worry about drones used for riot control, or disappearing into the bowels of an American desert Guantanamo.

You youngsters will have virtual reality XBOX games and virtual reality sex, complete with all the sensations of the real world. You’ll have 3D reality television and all the latest high-tech distractions you can afford.

Without the real-life poisoned water, air, and land that the corporate run government has created.

It will be a polluted Utopia.

With drones.

The Daily Show – Drone Use Policy Explained