Prior posts have alluded to Denmark’s major role as a test bed for the policies of the hidden hand, before they get rolled out to bigger nations. Perhaps it’s to do with being a country of 5.5m people, not spread over a huge area, or maybe it’s even to do with general level of (misplaced) trust, built up over many years in the framework and institutions. Size, perhaps in this case, is everything, as it’s interesting that some of the countries I see as elite test-beds are Denmark, New Zealand and Finland. Similar population sizes and look at how all 3 currently have identikit female prime ministers – out with the old guy in a suit and in with the new model to help prove to the masses democracy is working and their vote does count. It doesn’t of course, but a new broom every now and then to sweep clean helps maintain the illusion.
I had an argument with someone at work today. Or at least I raised my voice a bit. I really have had enough of condescenDanes, who think they know it all and the udlændige are second rate. I had mentioned to him last week, in response to his comment that he couldn’t believe the UK still allowed people to gather freely, eat in restaurants and go the pub, that I actually agreed people should live their lives freely. That I’d seen no evidence of this illness yet and that anyway, how come the world didn’t stop for the flu? This week he saw me again and was keen to mention how the UK now had the same disease as Denmark – no not the lovely COVID-19, but the disease of lockdowns, restrictions and closed businesses. Except he didn’t see it as a disease, but something that had to be done for the good of society. I’ve not changed my mind at all, in fact I said, come back in a year and we can discuss how many of these freedoms that have been taken away you have actually got back. The conversation turned to democracy being a wonderful thing, which I also disagreed with and got told “If you don’t like it here why not go and live in Saudi Arabia?”. This is the standard response of Danes, when they find you disagree with the things they hold dear and is, I suspect how they’ve always achieved their concensus. If you disagree, you’re an outlier and need to be got rid of. Maybe the Vikings dealt with outliers in more direct fashion – an accidental axe to the head while raiding Lindisfarne, killing the peaceful monks and stealing the booty, perhaps? It’s why all the rich danes live abroad – they could never be comfortable here with the envy, criticism and desire to bring them down to common denominator level. It’s why, at this point, I snapped and told him this – I have encountered this stock answer about leaving the country many times. Accept people have different views and are entitled to voice them.
Watching this crisis unfold, along with hearing the calls of citizens for further curtailments to their freedoms, got me thinking that I really do see the future here. As much as I really don’t want to see it and wish I wasn’t really here at all. I’ve lived through various taxes, intrusions into my private life and forced introductions to new systems such as nem-id and e-boks, to realise that I should write it down and try to warn the rest of the world.
So let’s look at what’s happened here in the past week or so :-
- Borders locked down – only Danes and foreign workers allowed in
- No gatherings of more than 10 people. So no konfirmation. unlucky
- Schools, Universities, Restaurants, Hairdressers, tanning salons – all closed
- Mandatory vaccinations for anyone suspected of having the virus
- Up to 75% of salary paid for employees as an alternative to firing anyone
- Extension of all this to April 13th, at the earliest
Let’s ignore that officially, at least, the vaccine hasn’t even been invented yet. On a personal note, I am one of only 2 or 3 people who goes into the office now and of those, I’m the only one who does a full day there. I really refuse to work from home, it does me no good and besides, zig while the world zags – petrol prices are down 20% in 2 weeks, the roads are empty and I can assess the situation outside. Drive while I can – that may well be an unaffordable luxury at some point in the future.
The clues were there, if you looked closely and worked it out. Denmark built a 5ft high border fence across the border with Germany last year. Ostensibly to keep out the swine flu, but it did seem a bit suspicious and ensured all border traffic went through official chokepoints only. Considering the rest of Denmark only has access by sea and air, it’s relatively easy to lockdown this nation if you really want to – interestingly, you can say the same of another elite test-bed, New Zealand. The surveillance society tightened it’s grip with the mandatory implementation of smart meters – every house had to have one by December 2019, due to a law that was signed in 2015. One house avoided that bullet, at least for the time being. Then there’s been the war on cash – a gradual enforcement of policies to ensure people pay with debit cards, contactless preferred, of course and finally, the tracking of people with mobile phones. Yes, Denmark has been big on this, and the global sharing of mobile information became clear to me back in 2018, when I received a letter from Skat, informing me of my English bank account – doesn’t matter that it only had £20 in it, Skat was keen to tax the interest. How did they match up this account? Why, using my mobile phone number of course. Think about that when you happily gift this important personal identifying key, a new world social security number, to any website out there.
Longer term, they are implementing so many horrific policies in the style of an expert sleight-of-hand magician, that it’s impossible to keep up. I saw the UK also implemented a salary bail-out of 80%, just like Denmark (see how these test bed policies catch on?). Why, to me this could almost seem to be an implementation of the new Universal Basic Income policy they’ve been talking about for a few years. It sounds great (and free) on paper, to just give a basic income to every citizen, but next up it’ll come with conditions – with deductions for socially unacceptable behaviour and rewards for really, really good socially acceptable behaviour. Define socially good – they will write the rules for that themselves in the year ahead and if you want that money, you better read the right books, newspapers and be a good citizen in exactly the way that they want. Then there’s the isolation and separation of old people, Logan’s run is coming. Then when, if ever, do you think airlines will be reopening? I had to say goodbye to my trip of a lifetime to Panama last week, and I seriously wonder if I’ll ever get that chance again. Then what about being socially distant and working from home? I see the dehumanisation agenda, a future world where AI and robots come to the fore being another step closer, when your colleagues are nothing more than photographic pixels on a computer screen. How long before some of them are replaced by robots and you never even notice?
Amongst it all, the saddest thing is that a lot of people are clamouring for this – please give us our free money, please lock us in our prison cells, please, please, please. Just like my Danish colleague there. I don’t blame him actually and I’m sure our little spat will be forgiven – with a lifetime in one of the ultimate test beds, of course he will love his system. No, the saddest things were probably :-
a) People reporting other people to the police for such serious infractions as – having a gathering of over 10 people in their own home, a business owner opening up his shop in contradiction of the new law and a supermarket that didn’t have a bottle of the now legally-required alcoholic handwash on the door. These were all locally-reported cases in my area, so multiply that across the nation and, furthermore, the world.
b) The Danish queen being applauded for her wonderful TV-delivered speech telling everyone to keep socially distant from each other, never leave the house except to shop essentially and do as her various enforcement agencies (skat, police, government) say. I’m sure someone in a 100-room mansion, with staff to do everything for her, is a great role model for us all.
c) An overbearing intrusion into my weekend from the Danish police and Danish health authority. The police actually sent out an SMS to every mobile number in the whole country (they’ve got it on file and they are tracking you, remember?). On the surface, it was to remind you they care, but underneath, it was sent on a Sunday and sent a message of omnipresence, with threatening undertones. It was also a great data gathering exercise – which numbers worked, who had their phones switched on and who read it. Should definitely help when they start the location tracking.
All in all, I am reminded of some quote from 1984 by George Orwell, perhaps, that says something like when the taking away of freedoms comes, the people will not be angry, they will be screaming for it, demanding it and just a few months ago I would have laughed and thought it impossible that it would come this way and so soon. I was wrong. If I was now to predict the future, I would say a bank is about to go bust – perhaps I need to refer back to my own book from 2007, How to Invest in Gold and Silver? Perhaps it’s time to remember that…
When laws become unjust, just men become outlaws