Once again big brother is making it difficult to simply opt out of their intrusion into your life and garnering an implicit concessionto their ever expanding system of control mechanisms.

Americans love to drive, but practically, in order to function in most of American society, it’s required. Mass transit is an alternative in some areas, but in most, if you can work it out, you own a car and you drive. That’s how Virginia is going to get you. Residents will be asked to trade a little of their personal freedom in exchange for receiving permission for their freedom to drive.

Of course, driving isn’t a right, it’s a privilege. Even our rights are turning into privileges, so complaining about the state trampling on our privileges isn’t likely to go very far.

Based upon a foundation of the Virginia DMV records, the State is creating a master identitydatabase of Virginia residents . Of course, it’s for their own good, and only for use by trusted stateagencies to provide, you guessed it, enhanced security and safety. Isn’t it funny how those always seem to be the arguments made when the government is taking our liberty away from us.

I never realized that privacy was so dangerous, and we all know that creeping feeling of insecurity that one gets from not having government eyes tracking our every move.

But not to worry, the government assures Virginia residents that the program will be limited in scope and access, at least until they decide to change it.

In a monumental understatement, Claire Guthrie Gastañaga, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia said, “It makes it easier to compromise your privacy. They’re using DMVfor some other purpose than driving.”

One of the best arguments against this infant Frankenstein was made by Robby Demeria, executivedirector of RichTech, Richmond’s technology council, who said, “anything you make more accessible and efficient for the user, you potentially open up for opportunities for risk, for attack.”

Of course, in order to quell public concern and get their foot in the door, State officials say participation in the e-ID system will be voluntary.

The first state agency using the largely federally funded Commonwealth Authentication Service system will be the Department of Social Services, aiming to satisfy federal Medicaid requirements under the Affordable Care Act and to reduce eligibility fraud and errors. The system goes live Tuesday. I can see the volunteerism written all over that one. Of course there is no implied or direct threat of a loss of benefits for not filling out the necessary forms.

The open door to tyranny is through healthcare, just as designed. The IRS data collectors will be given the info collected by the State of Virginia, and then placed into files on them and eventually all of us who are residents of the American plantation.  And Federal funding makes for much more palatable despotism. We are giving our government masters the tools through which to ultimately use the system to control us.

“When we allow governments to do that,” said Virginia ACLU’s Gastañaga, “it facilitates and empowers things that we might not want to have happen if the wrong people get into power.”

From my observations, the existence of this database is proof that the wrong people have already gotten into power.

So enjoy the ride, Virginia residents , just remember you’ve  got big brother along as a passenger, everywhere you go.