They are watching

My wife was watching a television show the other day about the FBI. It seems a Russian network was learning about American people and their (lack of) conviction about an election, and an algorithm could have been written that might influence the next election. It sounded all too familiar; it sounded like fiction was copying reality or the other way around.

Then today I heard a report about more invasions of privacy as Google (oh, no, now they are going to target me!) has its ears in everyone's business. How do they do that? Your phone is always 'on' and that's why "Hey, Google" or "Hey, Siri" works so well. Alexis' eavesdropping and thus availability is both pleasant and fearful at the same time.

Maybe George Orwell was right. 1984 is a long time ago now, but how close was he?

Maybe DJ Jones was right.  I read the sci-fi novel Colossus for high school probably in 1968 or so. Here's what Wiki has to say about that book:

"The story is set in the late 20th century from Chapter 3, and narrowed down to the 1990s in Chapter 10. Professor Charles Forbin, a leading cybernetics expert of international repute, arrives at the White House to brief the President of the United States of North America (Canada and the United States are one country, the USNA) to announce the completion of Project Colossus, a computer system in the Rocky Mountains, designed to assume control of the USNA's nuclear arsenal. Although the USNA President eagerly relieves himself of that burden, Prof. Forbin voices doubt about conferring absolute military power to a computer. Advised, yet undeterred, the President announces to the world the activation of the Project Colossus computer system, and its irreversible control of the nuclear defense systems of the USNA.

Soon after the presidential announcement, Colossus independently communicates an "urgent message" – announcing the existence of a similar, previously undetected, computer system in the USSR. When the Soviets announce their Guardian computer defense system, Colossus requests direct communication with it. Prof. Forbin agrees, seeing the request as compatible with Colossus's USNA defense mission. Likewise, Guardian asks the same of his computer scientists. Russia and the USNA agree and approve."

Maybe that movie with Sandra Bullock from the early 1990s ("The Net") was more accurate than we care to admit.

Look, the reality is that they are watching us. They know what we buy in the grocery. They know that we are discussing flights to Fiji or the cost of flour at the Coles food store. They know when we drove through that speed camera and registered our license plate and our speed and can onsell the information to the highest bidder.

And they are selling that information.

That's why all of a sudden on my Facebook when I'm looking to update my status, there are advertisements for Coles' flour and a flight to Fiji. That's why I get notifications about any number of products, even if I haven't ever bought one before.

We are being watched.

Now I know to many people that's a bit offputting. They think they can be alone. They think they are going to use cash, and avoid the awareness of the big banks, the insurers, the government. But that horse has already bolted. THEY already know pretty much everything about you.

And they are profiting from this information.

What can you do? Turn off your television (which probably has a camera as well so that you can be watched all the time)? Turn off your computer? Move to the bush? Nope. Let me recommend that you relax and ponder this.

“For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His."  2Chr. 16:9     and again

"The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous 

And His ears are open to their cry."     Psa. 34:15    

We are being watched. Big Brother, The Net, Colossus or the FBI.

Let's let the Lord see all we are, and all we are doing. And as long as He knows what's what; no matter who else knows stuff; we are going to be fine.  Do you agree? 

Re-enactment

I love seeing the story again and again. I saw the Renaissance Festival in the US some years ago, with actors playing the roles of real people who might have lived in Europe in the XV century. They stayed in character and amazed me with historical information and good humour. It was as if I were living there in their neighbourhood; it was as if I were there in time and space.


Old Sydney Town is no longer here, neither in its historical setting, subsumed year by year by more modernity and post-modernity than can fit on George Street, nor in its capacity to re-enact itself up the Central Coast. The old village atmosphere next to the Australian Reptile Park, was a classic, again with actors playing the roles of magistrates and captains, villains and heroes, all related to the beginnings of Sydney in XVIII century Sydney town.

My family and I certainly enjoyed going there, as well as Williamsburg, Virginia, or meeting villagers in Shakespeare's old haunts in Stratford-on-Avon, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and even Sturbridge, Massachusetts. These historical venues of re-enactments are helpful for the history major at a university, and helpful for all people to sort out what 'really' happened in varied and multiple cites worldwide.

Deb Fuller has 20 years of experience in running and participating in reenactments.  She wrote about it on this website: https://exarc.net/issue-2019-1/mm/how-run-reenactment-part-1.

Almost two years ago in Washington, DC, a museum opened which featured scenes of biblical history and conversations you could have with living interpreters. The "Museum of the Bible" was opened just blocks from the US Capitol.             

Visitors listen to a “living history interpreter,” right, in the old Nazareth exhibit at the Museum of the Bible on opening day. (Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post). 

Here's what I'm saying, that there is a certain historicity which a re-enactment brings, a certain authority. When we hear an actor on stage or screen, telling us that they want our ears, along with other friends, Romans and countrymen, we, like the crowd who watched Julius Caeser for the first time in the XVI want to rail against Brutus and the other conspirators. We want justice for fallen Caeser. We believe the oration of Mark Antony, no matter the cost.

When a reenactment of the Moon Landing which took place 50 years ago comes on our History Channel or Oliver Stone produces yet another episode in his litany of hostile-to-history films, we get caught up. We are torn. What is true? What really happened?

Facts and fiction fight one another, and a person has to be sure that the repetition of history in reenactments highlights the former. 

Tomorrow night begins the Jewish holiday of Tabernacles (Sukkot) which itself is a reenactment of the history of the wandering in the wilderness by the Jewish people after they left Egypt in 1500 BCE or so. God provided for us; we were cared for; none of our shoes wore out; we had daily food, and so much more. When we build the sukkah, when we sit in it, and see the fruit hanging, when we read the book of Ecclesiastes and ponder again all the Almighty can do and did-- when we do all that, the force of the reenactment is powerful and helpful. We gain faith. We trust God all the more. 

I hope your understanding of truth and history continues to grow; think of God, and think on His great deeds among all people. He is Worthy!