Dealing with Travel Restrictions

It's clear, even from casual observation, that there's a totalitarian push to control travel. A green pass will soon be required for travel across borders. This pass will be hooked up to various databases. Bureaucrats will be able to read our complete travel history. They will be able to see our social credit score, and they will be able to determine if we're allowed to travel based on this data.

The new normal envisioned by the totalitarians is full of checkpoints. No-one will be able to work or buy stuff without a valid green pass, and the exact parameters that have to be met for a green pass to be valid will be set arbitrarily by the people at the top of the bureaucratic pyramid.

This dystopian future is what top bureaucrats are pushing all over the world, and they imagine themselves well positioned to do exactly this. However, the totalitarian view of the world is incorrect. The world is not a hierarchy. It's a network. No amount of technology will ever change this. All that will be achieved by pushing the green card agenda is an emergence of parallel systems that operate under the radar.

My plan, in case of complete totalitarian madness, is to further expand my reliance on the parallel economy. We will get our food delivered, and we'll either become farmers ourselves, or we will find ways around work restrictions.

One possibility might be to work remotely from a country where things are less crazy. However, that would require a green pass. The relatively sane place we're heading for might allow people in without a green pass, but the crazy place we're traveling from may require a green pass to leave. How then do we get out of the country without being stabbed?

One option would be to drop our travel plans and simply stay put, or move into the outback to get away from the worst of the insanity. Internal travel restrictions, such as those that were common in Nazi occupied Europe, are never very effective. There's always some way to get from one place to another. A network of informants develops out of necessity. There will be ways to know if a checkpoint is in place, and alternative routes can be sought.

But we're not necessarily stuck in the country where we live, even if it goes completely bananas. There are other ways to get from one place to another than to take a commercial flight or ferry. There might be loopholes for private jets and yachts, in which case a journey can be made by renting such a vehicle. That will make the journey more expensive, but if the goal is to move somewhere permanently, it's a one off cost. It may well be worth it.

If the totalitarians crack down on all loopholes so that any travel out or in must be according to green pass regulations, there's still the option of illegal travel. This is how refugees get around. It's always been this way, and it's always been impossible to stamp out. There's always a way to get from one place to another, especially for those prepared to pay for the service.

A draconian crackdown on travel will have major repercussions. However, it won't increase their ability to control us, because travel in itself is not a liberating experience.

Spending a week on a beech in Florida doesn't change the way people think about government. However, traveling somewhere with the aim to circumvent rules and restrictions does affect our world view. Travel restrictions are therefore likely to strengthen local networks to the detriment of centralized power.

There's already a tendency in this direction. People are paying less attention to politicians and their spin doctors in media. Decrees are being increasingly ignored at the local level. The execution of mandates fail because too few take them seriously. The net effect of this is de facto secession at a personal and local level.

Combined with internet communication, people will be able to identify safe havens for their escape plans. A sailboat can be hired, a marina identified, and safe passage ensured, all happening under the radar. This, and many other things, will become increasingly easy to do in the parallel economy where everyone is a sovereign and there are no laws beyond the golden rule.

British Airways coming in for landing

By Wo st 01 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, Link