“We are all just prisoners here, of our own device.” – Hotel California, by the Eagles
ReadyNutrition guys and gals, this article is designed to provide you with some food for thought regarding the devices of our modern technological area. As a modern society, it is very rare to find someone without a cell phone or a hand-held computing device. While saving time and enabling many different functions, it has also caused our society to become completely dependent upon these devices and has has set us up for a fall. We already know that those devices are vulnerable to an EMP or a solar storm that can render society as a whole inoperable. But what about the devices themselves in the normal course of use? They can act as a monitoring system: a little “spy” in your pocket, transmitting data about you to others that can be acted upon to hurt you.
Former General and Director of the CIA, David Petraeus made a statement regarding simple appliances found in the home, stating that smart technology will make all of our life’s functions part of the “internet of things” someday. This bodes a dire warning to all of us. The smart refrigerator that will “order” your food from the grocery store, the cellular telephone that transmits a burst signal every four second to a tower with your position, and the smart “boxes” in your Lexus sedan are all examples of electronic control and tracking.
Shield Your Gear From EMPs
I have found that you can shield off your communications devices by placing them in an EMP-protective bag available online, and you can also use Mylar to block the transmission of the cell phone or I-pad’s signals from effectively reaching the towers. There is a myriad of information all over the internet that shows how to protect such devices from an EMP or a solar flare. The principle works in reverse as well, and we’re noting it here for your consideration in your personal planning posture.
The Easiest Way to Wean Yourself Off of a Tech Dependent Lifestyle
JJ’s suggestion is to take a time period – you determine the amount of time for yourself – such as a weekend or a few days during the week, and try to function without the use of any electronic devices, especially those such as hand-held communication. Give yourself a set period as a drill and a training exercise. This will help you learn alternative methods of communicating with your family and those you associate with, as well as begin to help you wean yourself off of your tech dependence. You will be surprised how often you want to check your Facebook or social media during this time. Such an exercise can gauge how effectively you will function if an EMP or grid-destroying event does occur.
I have suggested in numerous articles that Motorola radios, CB radios, and handheld communication devices such as portable Ham radios are effective means of communication that cannot be monitored as readily as the cellular telephones. In addition to this, they only need a shielded power source and shielding to protect from the aforementioned disasters. When the dust settles, the cellular telephones will not be up and running, but you can pull these devices out and use them.
Don’t Allow Your Equipment to Own You
Better yet, they do not continuously transmit your position and movements to Big Brother. There is much merit in this. Here is the mindset: we pay our income taxes, and the federal government uses those funds to inculcate ever-growing policies and technologies that further enslave us. It is akin to paying a building contractor to construct a cage around you. The same with the technology. Owning it makes you subject yourself to continuous monitoring and perhaps much worse. The federal government didn’t build a $50 billion facility for the collection of electronic data and phone transmissions in Ogden, Utah for nothing.
So the suggestion here is to “wean” yourself off of the technology that can monitor you and perhaps even lead to a totalitarian government tracking and scooping you up. Use your equipment, but don’t allow your equipment to use you, or yourself to be used by it. Don’t allow your tools to be the tools someone else employs. Everything can “morph” in an instant and life as we know it come to a screeching halt. It is better to prepare every day and be “wrong” in the eyes of others for 364 ¼ days out of the year than to not prepare for one day and be “right” when the bottom falls out. Protect yourself from your own equipment, and keep it from monitoring you. Don’t let it become a situation that turns into the phrase, “You can check out any time you like…but you can never leave.”