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Religious Opposition to REAL ID
Been trying to track down this old article from my archives for a while, but just happened across it randomly - finally…
Here’s a story out of Ontario, Canada, about a fundamentalist Christian farmer who opposes his photo being stored digitally in a database. George Bothwell is trying to get a driver’s license, but does not want his biometric data to be stored in a central computing system. He believes that this is a method of behavioral control which the Bible warns against in Revelations. Canadian law allows for certain exemptions from these rules on religious grounds, but no application for exemption has ever been granted since they first allowed the option in 1986. The reason this particular man is being denied is because he does not belong to any offically recognized organized religion. The requirements stipulate that he must belong to a group which has a recognized religious leader, who is able to put down his beliefs in writing. Since the man worships on his own, he is not successfully able to complete these requirements.
And a link to the article from which I based this.
What I’ve been thinking with regards to this is that somebody should start a corporate religious entity (which you could sell membership to? [FREE BUSINESS IDEA]) specifically geared to address this issue - as it is only going to get worse over the coming years. This points back to all that stuff about owning your datawake that I was writing about several months ago. The trick would basically be creating legal precedents to cover people’s butts before things get much crazier with corporate/government control of people’s identity, etc. BIG BIG BIG deal, these issues over the coming years. Figure out how to profit off it while helping people maintain the types of lifestyles and liberties they demand. There’s plenty of room for creative solutions in these areas as few people are even considering them, letting along talking them through or taking practical steps to figure them out.
February 11th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Seems like studying up on how Scientology got its start would be useful for that, what with them being a successful (?) profiting religion. I don’t have the wherewithall, business skills or leadership skills to start something like what you’re suggesting, but I’d sure as darn get involved if it was a ‘cool’ cult and it served my interests.
I was thinking the same thing as I read the exerpt from your old post. Timothy Leary was serious and was onto something when he was evangelizing this idea. There are plenty of reasons it’s still a good idea, even better now given the new issues we face, that you’re talking about. And combining the religious entity with the corporate entity, that’s new.
Any lawyers or crazy genius business-minded people reading this? I would love to see this picked up for real.
February 11th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
my first thought is that anyone starting a religion with the express purpose of allowing soeone to opt out of a government program is going to run into problems…….similar to selling your votes to the highest bidder.
one would have to hide that selling feature pretty deep in the manifesto…….
February 12th, 2008 at 12:25 am
That wouldn’t be the express purpose. The express purpose would be to legally protect a belief in a certain form of identity and the lifestyle that identity is based upon. Nothing more nothing less. In essence, it’s what the United States of America was founded on…
February 12th, 2008 at 4:17 am
It occurred to me that it’s not really ‘identity’ theft so much as ‘identification theft’. A long time ago I would be asked for my identification. Then it became ID. Now: do I carry any identity? I wonder if someone somewhere sat down and thought, ‘Let’s make this thing be called ‘identity’ instead of what it is; that’ll really mess with their heads.
Draconian control of identification by big organisations then means ‘You are what we say you are’. Not an encouraging message.
Welcome, my son! Welcome to the machine.
What did you dream? - it’s alright, we told you what to dream…
February 12th, 2008 at 8:24 am
yeah, someone is messing, and it wasn`t pink floyd.
and big elk, you can say it`s an ideological difference, but to the government it would be seen as an opt-out.
apparently we have the right to bear arms and to not pay taxes as well…..
February 12th, 2008 at 11:35 am
I’m not saying it would be a walk in the park… I’m looking at creative solutions which leverage rules within the current system. I’m not saying anyone would respect it. It seems worth investigating though.
The other angle here is canon law vs. civil law. Charlie Stross in his sci-fi book Accelerando talks about something not dissimilar, in terms of submitting oneself to the jurisdiction of Sharia, Muslim law, in order to take advantage of certain differences… I think he’s right in that this is going to be a tremendously huge issue in about 5-10 years.
February 12th, 2008 at 11:47 am
I’d like to self-advertise a little here for an older podcast of mine: Breaking the Monopoly of Identity.
“Government” (itself a fiction) is not the only entity concerned with enforcing you to a particular notion of your identity. Your friends, family, co-workers, etc are always constantly trying to get you to be something as well. This is why Don Juan talks so much about erasing personal history. That NLP dude was all about this as well - and incidentally, look where it got him!
February 12th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Rights not asserted are rights abandoned.
February 12th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
friends, family and co-workers are part of the borg that the government has created. until they wake up they will continue to chide you in a parental way which merely produces more robots. they are oblivious of what they are actually doing and have forgotten what it was like to be a child themselves.
otherwise they wouldn`t be such assholes.
February 12th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
You can’t rely on or wait for other people to “wake up”. All you can do is be vigilant with the spark you’ve been given and let that light shine out.
February 12th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
yeah, i felt a little of that today over coffee……..and i`m grateful for those moments.
i would like a few more people to wake up though. not specific people, because obviously that`s a personal path, but just a few more souls to join in with. but i guess it`s all part of my personal shining eh?