Orthodox Reflections

Bill S.686, also known as the RESTRICT Act, was introduced to the US Senate on March 7 of this year.  It uses the purported dangers of TikTok as a trojan horse to usher in draconian Internet censorship.  It also mentions the Russian Federation as an enemy combatant of the United States.  The bill calls for the creation of a disinformation board. Should the board determine you are spreading disinformation, it calls for the confiscation of any tech suspected of use in the spreading of the “disinformation”. This includes your computer, phone, tablets, and more.  The bill also has criminal penalties which include a $1 million fine and 20 years in prison.  Read the bill for yourself.  This bill can be very harmful for the Orthodox community in the United States. We need to spread the word about this threat.

Does this sound like an appropriate way to deal with TikTok videos of dancing teens?

Digital threats to American freedom are not new, but are accelerating. This attack on “misinformation” comes on the heels of an experiment in Ukraine, funded by the United States, in what is called e-governance. The following excerpt is from the Orthodox Reflections article Our Resignation to Mass Surveillance:

There is one technology I am especially concerned with, as I believe it is a precursor to what lies ahead with respect to the system that manages digital identities: e-governance.

 

Diia is a mobile app, a web portal, and a brand of e-governance in Ukraine. From its Wiki page:

 

“Launched in 2020, the Diia app allows Ukrainian citizens to use digital documents in their smartphones instead of physical ones for identification and sharing purposes. The Diia portal allows access to over 50 governmental services. Eventually, the government plans to make all kinds of state-person interactions available through Diia.”

18 January 2023, Axios.com wrote in an online article that Samantha Power, USAID Administrator, at the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, announced “The U.S. hopes to replicate the success of an e-governance app used in Ukraine in other countries.” According to the article, Diia allows “citizens to access ID documents, register a business and obtain various government services from their smartphones” Also, conveniently, and likely unprecedented in an e-governance app, “Since Russia’s invasion began last year, the app has been expanded to include additional tools like reporting damage from Russian strikes.” Presumably with an ability to report locations of Russian soldiers and equipment and their movements, as well. Similar e-governance apps exist across the United States, especially in larger cities. But when one arrives that is the accepted, official federal government version, I believe it will become clear just how far the threat to our God-given rights has come.

The war in Ukraine, and the “Russian” and “Chinese” threats, are becoming multi-purpose excuses to strip away American freedoms. Of all the communities in the US, the Orthodox Church could easily find itself the most at risk.

As the war in Ukraine grinds on, more and more nations are working together to ditch the US Dollar as the preferred medium of international trade. Expect the pressure on the dollar to continue, as its position as the world’s reserve currency continues to weaken. In addition, the recent bank failures highlight the problems underlying the US banking system. The continuation of domestic inflation in the current US dollar is also a worry. Expect all these problems to accelerate the Fed’s move towards a “Central Bank Digital Currency”. This move would signal the end of paper money, and put the Federal Reserve in the business of holding deposits directly for Americans. CBDC adoption would mean that financial privacy would be a thing of the past, and the Federal Government would have total control over your finances. This is a warning from a Forbes article:

The problem is that there is no limit to the level of control that the government could exert over people if money is purely electronic and provided directly by the government. A CBDC would give federal officials full control over the money going into–and coming out of–every person’s account.

 

This level of government control is not compatible with economic or political freedom.

We talked more about digital currency in this article. Last year, many Canadians who protested COVID policies, or who just donated to the cause, found themselves cutoff from their own bank accounts. Right now, the Ukrainian Government is using money as a weapon against the monks of the Kiev Petschersk Lavra. This is from an appeal from ROCOR for donations to keep the monks and theological students fed:

They are starving the canonical monks out of the Lavra. That’s what I just found out from the abbot of the monastery himself.

 

In the last few days and weeks, many of the canonical bishops, clergy, and monastics have been sanctioned by the Ukrainian government. The Ukrainian government froze the accounts of the monastery, as well as of Metropolitan Pavel – the abbot of the monastery.

The US Government has used money as a weapon for decades. Almost 25% of the world’s population lives under some form of American economic sanctions. Part of the drive to trade in other currencies is an attempt to escape this US global tyranny.

The RESTRICT Act, e-governance with other surveillance initiatives, and digital currency are all frightening enough on their own. In combination, we would find ourselves in an air-tight digital prison. Dissent would be impossible. If you thought the COVID lockdowns were harsh, then rest assured, you haven’t seen anything yet.

At some point, running a warning article like this always get us accused of spreading “conspiracy theories”. Here is our reply:

It is not a conspiracy if they tell you about it. When you have public comments, press releases, presidential directives, executive orders, bills in Congress, press interviews by the rich and powerful, books – it’s called a plan, not a conspiracy.

And it is one helluva a grand plan.

Nicholas – member of the Western Rite Vicariate, a part of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese in America