The Chinese Communists are instituting a new system for monitoring the social behavior of all of its citizens. Each citizen will be assigned a score based on such behavior, and that score will determine everything in your life.
Imagine a world where an authoritarian government monitors everything you do, amasses huge amounts of data on almost every interaction you make, and awards you a single score that measures how “trustworthy” you are.
In this world, anything from defaulting on a loan to criticising the ruling party, from running a red light to failing to care for your parents properly, could cause you to lose points. And in this world, your score becomes the ultimate truth of who you are – determining whether you can borrow money, get your children into the best schools or travel abroad; whether you get a room in a fancy hotel, a seat in a top restaurant – or even just get a date.
This is not the dystopian superstate of Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report, in which all-knowing police stop crime before it happens. But it could be China by 2020. It is the scenario contained in China’s ambitious plans to develop a far-reaching social credit system, a plan that the Communist Party hopes will build a culture of “sincerity” and a “harmonious socialist society” where “keeping trust is glorious.”
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The government hasn’t announced exactly how the plan will work – for example, how scores will be compiled and different qualities weighted against one another. But the idea is that good behaviour will be rewarded and bad behaviour punished, with the Communist Party acting as the ultimate judge.
Let me be clear, the left absolutely adores China and adores it precisely because of its authoritarian Government. And they would love nothing more than to have this kind of system — the state monitoring your behavior constantly and dinging you for any act of political incorrectness. It would be the ultimate tool of social control.
Think I’m exaggerating? Ask Brendan Eich. Or Travis Kalanick. Or Curt Shilling.
This article actually came out last fall. I wonder why there hasn’t been more discussion of it.
We all are aware of exactly why this article is being dismissed by the socialist media. If Americans thought the US govt would do this to them, there would be chaos in the streets.
Back when I was in college, there was a serialized series of ScFi novella’s set in a Dystopian American-future where every citizen had two social-rank “scores” that reflected your income, assets, education, social clout and political influence; one was “legal” and the other “illegal”, though the illegal were really social-credits reflecting one’s non-conformity to societal norms. Other than murder there were few actual crimes that were actually punished by the State. “Illegal” actions were taxed just like legal ones, and as long as you paid the taxes you could sell drugs, smuggle, gamble, exploit and pimp — as long as you filled out the paperwork and paid the taxes and fees. Being a celebrity or a style-setter was also a route to more credit; but inherited wealth or family wealth only counted for what you did with that wealth, you still had to earn the social credits.
The more credits you accumulated the higher your rank and social prestige. Even voting was factored by your social score, the more credits one had, the more your vote counted, so you gained greater and greater social and political clout as a citizen. Both wealth capitalists and business leaders — and crime-bosses — were cultivated by society and the government due to their prestige; like stockholders with large stock holdings by a board seeking their proxy-support.
Access to legal and illegal venues were governed and limited by your ranking-score. Access to housing, clubs and restaurants, even jobs were ranked by your score. And people limited their contacts and business dealings to only those of their equal-rank to avoid losing credits or clout.
This is not entirely fictional. Tsarist Russia had the 14-rung Table of Ranks And the Ming and Qing Dynasties had their Nine Ranks and later 18 rankss for mandarins and officers that controlled their privileges and authority.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_Ranks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_square
This is horrifying…and yes, I bet America is headed there. Or in danger.
The bad thing about modern technology is, it’s really, really good at keeping records on people forever.
Or at letting records be manipulated for the wrong reasons.
– You sleep with the Party boss, or make the right donations to Hillary, or help cover up a scandal? Guess what, they fix up your record.
– You point out that the politically-connected can get their records fixed, which is wrong and unfair? Guess what, you’re in prison.
– You spread the word about your neighbor being imprisoned unjustly? Guess what, you’re next. And the media wants to stay out of prison, so they won’t help. So almost nobody knows; and those who know, won’t say anything.
In this way, the most “troublesome” 1% of individuals can be eliminated – and the rest are sheep who have little idea and blindly enjoy the peaceful “trust” of society. Opening your eyes puts you into the troublesome 1% and you’re up for elimination. Unless you are enough of a sociopath to get membership in the *other* 1%, the sociopaths who run the sheep.
V the K,
China’s government action is super creepy bad news for the Chinese. But, even so, could you be exaggerating here? How exactly does the fact that Friedman likes China’s efforts on environmental issues mean that the “the left absolutely adores China and adores it precisely because of its authoritarian Government”? How do you get that result from the Weekly Standard article you link to? Sorry V the K, but that is a bit (a lot, actually) of an over-reach, don’t you think?