Welcome to 2030: Own Nothing and Be Miserable

(WND)—In November of 2016, Ida Auken, a member of parliament in Denmark and the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council, wrote a now-infamous article that was later republished by Forbes. Its original title was “Welcome to 2030. I own nothing. I have no privacy, and life has never been better.” In her article, Auken describes her utopian ideal of how things will play out to form her perfect happy place. Below, you will find my take on how this might play out:

Welcome to 2030. Life is very different, but it’s good. The global elites were able to form a consortium of major corporations and banking giants to squeeze out nonconformity in the mainstream. People were simply unwilling to boycott effectively because it meant doing without a bit.

Freedom of speech was the first to fall. When communications became “free,” it was no more safe to speak freely for anyone. The promise of free renewable energy was dangled like a carrot to anyone willing to move into a 15 minute cities. But we saw that the price was not couched in terms of dollars and cents, but rather in loss of vital freedoms.

We had realized early on we needed to chart a different path. We had moved to a remote property and began learning to live off the land, acquired animals, changed our eating habits. We met our (distant) neighbors, formed friendships and area coalitions of our own, mostly through our county sheriff and the local church. So many of us within those church walls were convinced we were seeing prophecy playing out before us; still are.

When the 15 minute cities finally locked down, some of our family members were caught inside. The stories we heard from the lucky ones who got out were hair-raising. Totalitarian rule and local power-hungry despots are an ugly thing to see.

In the 15 minute cities, the promise of free everything was just a myth. The available food was sub-par at best; nothing fresh, all lifeless and processed, shipped in from afar. Necessities were scarce because everything was either broken or just unavailable since there was little to no manufacturing going on. No one had any desire to work since all they would get from doing so was the same – nothing – as everyone else. Morale was low; there was filth and disease everywhere, which is why so many tried to escape. Many failed and died trying, but that was just fine with the authorities: they were told the fewer, the better. Such is the Malthusian mindset – no need for care or mercy. There’s too many useless eaters anyway.

We, on the other hand, were thriving in the deep country. We lost power early on when they cut us off from the grid and other forms of power like natural gas. But some of us had viable solar, wind and geothermal systems that could provide enough output for a refrigerator/freezer and a few lights and fans. Others of us just dug a root cellar and went low tech. In fact, we discovered that was the key to quiet (unnoticed) living. It was actually nice in winter to eat dinner by the light of the bees wax candles we dipped ourselves.

We don’t have any way to shop for what we need. Instead, it is incumbent upon us to preserve, as much as possible, all that we have. There is no waste here, for we cannot afford it since we live so close to the edge of getting by. Nobody here is fat anymore! We are forced to use our ingenuity to make what we need. Figuring things out is actually quite fun. Working together to bring in and preserve a crop or process and share a calf is gratifying when we survey a full larder and experience exceptional food and full tummies. It makes us truly thankful for what we do have: good food and excellent friends and family. It’s a hard life, but it’s very fulfilling. We are not pampered and lazy like we were before. Instead we work hard and enjoy the fruit of our labor.

We have much deeper personal relationships through shared work and family life, and we all look more fully to God for every blessing. Instead of spending evenings after work with our faces individually in our respective devices, living our lives separately, our family reads together or plays board games. We sometimes even have old fashioned neighborhood gatherings where the local musicians share their gifts, someone reads a poem or puts on a short play and we all have a fun time enjoying one another’s company. Our memory seems to be improving too, with every day away from a computer or TV screen. We no longer depend on the internet or digital devices because they can be tracked.

Medical needs were a difficult thing to overcome. Early on, when a neighbor got ill and went for care and never returned, we finally figured out the price of that care: entrapment. So we found ways to solve problems without hospitals and pharmaceuticals. Instead we use natural remedies, herbals and prayer; all surprisingly effective. Funny thing is, though, once we started eating only that food we grew from our own lands and that of our neighbors, we seemed to have fewer medical issues. In fact, we were much stronger from all the outdoor labor, in more ways than one.

Our daily lives are somewhat constrained by handling necessities, but we get to choose what those are, not some idiot bureaucrat who doesn’t know the first thing about animal husbandry or gardening, or some AI that is only regurgitating what somebody wrote in a book a decade ago. We have no fear that our every keystroke is being cataloged for later use to manipulate or control us because we have no use for such technology. We do, however, have to be careful to avoid the patrols, satellites and drones. The Lord has been good to us, hiding us like Corrie ten Boom’s Bible.

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