Branded by the Combine (Part 1)

Unpicking the threads of our subservience

When I began writing these Substack articles I realised that ending the Combine’s dominance would not be easy. This is taken from my first post a few months ago:

Traitor to the Combine is a work-in-progress - in fact, not even a work-in-progress - more like a tentative dip in the shallows. Who knows what else is in that big churning ocean beyond the seashore?¹

This is not the place to rehearse my arguments for withdrawing from the Combine.² If you are reading this you too want to see an end to its control over our lives. But what is really at stake here?

A little experiment might help answer this question.

Find a mirror or any reflective surface, and look into it. What do you see? Unless you’re a vampire(!), you will be gazing at a reflection of your own face or, if the mirror is big enough, your whole body right there in front of you.

Yippee! You’re a real person. You exist. You are alive!

But you don’t need a mirror to tell you that, do you? Without getting all philosophical about it, you know you’re real. You might live with other people and they can confirm that you are real if you ever doubt your existence. But even if you live on your own, you are a flesh-and-blood human being who occupies space in our world. That is not in doubt, is it?

But what about the world outside, the official world, the Combine? Do you exist in its eyes? The answer is, not necessarily. Not unless you are registered.

Now let us set aside our experiment and focus on how everyone enters the Combine, how everyone is registered.

Life begins inside the womb. When she becomes pregnant, a woman will usually tell someone, like her partner, or her parents, or her best friend. Once she has decided to stay pregnant, and shared the news with her nearest and dearest, the expectant mother is faced with another decision. A big decision, maybe the biggest of her life. Should she also tell the Combine?

Here is what that entails (in Ireland at any rate):

If you think you are pregnant, the first step is to visit your GP or contact your local maternity unit or hospital. They will confirm your pregnancy with a pregnancy test and discuss your antenatal care options.³

As a man I have never given birth. So I don’t know what it is like to feel life growing inside your body, to be the bearer of a child whom you will cherish and nurture. But I have talked to a few mothers who have experienced this wonderful (and painful) process. And I can read - and so can you. We can therefore see that everything in the extract above is couched as advice. It is not an edict that you must obey - it is an invitation. No one has to accept it. But it is a decision.

However, for the vast majority of expectant mothers, it is not a decision at all. It is a no-brainer. Of course they go to the doctor or maternity hospital and, from then until the birth itself, their lives revolve around regular check-ups, scans, and ante-natal classes, usually carried out in some kind of medical setting.

In fact the Combine wants women and men to view childbirth, not as a natural part of life that has been going on for thousands and thousands of years, but as a potentially dangerous undertaking that requires medical intervention to keep mother and baby safe. These days, the most likely scenario is for a pregnant woman to give birth under medical supervision, usually in a hospital or sometimes at home.

After the child arrives the new mother is encouraged to register the birth. Here is what the Citizens Information Board says about that:

Once the birth is registered, your baby will be given a PPS [Personal Public Service] number and you can get a birth certificate (which you will need to enrol your child in school, to apply for a passport and for many other purposes).⁴

But even before the birth is registered it would be very difficult for the mother to back out, even if she wanted to, even if she thought she could. The fact that she has accepted the State’s invitation to medicalise her pregnancy means that her child is already on its way to becoming an ‘official’ person. That process begins at the birth itself. Here is the Citizens Information Board again:

A Birth Notification Form (Form BNF/01) is usually completed with the parent(s) by hospital staff (in the case of hospital births), or by a doctor or midwife (in home births), to guarantee that accurate information is recorded. The Birth Notification Form outlines the information to be recorded in the Register of Births. If your child is born in hospital, the form is sent to the Registrar's office, letting the Registrar know that a birth has occurred.⁵

So, even before the registration itself, a record has been created that contains key details about the parents and the baby. All that remains is for the mother to complete the process by formally registering her child’s birth. The PPS number and birth certificate that follow mark the child’s acceptance into the Combine.

But what would happen if an expectant mother ignored the State’s invitation, if she never registered the birth, if the child was never given a PPS number? I can find no evidence that anything I have discussed so far is legally compulsory. Yes, the State coaxes and cajoles new parents with promises of Child Benefit payments if they play ball. But could a mother actually be arrested and prosecuted for not registering her child’s birth? Has this ever happened?

Things were not quite so regulated when I came along many years ago. My birth was registered at the time but I did not receive a PPS number until I was older. I suspect my birth certificate or my PPS number, or both, were necessary when I applied for a passport, got my driving licence, or opened a bank account. Could I also have found a job, bought a house, or taken my family abroad, without these ‘proofs’ that I exist? Indeed, if I did not have them, would I be able to buy anything today, like food?

It is certainly possible (as I have discussed elsewhere) to live without a Public Services Card, health insurance, or voting in elections and referendums. But the key to Combine control over our lives lies in the fact that we are registered from birth. You could say we are ‘branded’ like cattle as soon as we enter this world.

Adapted by JPB from original published at https://ifunny.co/tags/fartaravy.

It might take a while for us to unpick the threads woven over a lifetime of subservience to the Combine. But that ‘brand’ does fade over time and we can reverse everything that went before. We can rediscover something so obvious and simple that it is easy to overlook: our true essence, life itself.

Remember that each of us is a real human being and we do not need the Combine to validate our existence. God or Nature has already done that.

1. J. P. Bruce, ‘The Combine after covid’, 20 Feb 2024.

2. Click on the ‘About’ tab to learn more.

3. Citizens Information Board [https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/birth-family-relationships/before-your-baby-is-born/choices-in-antenatal-care/], 5 Jul 2024. The Citizens Information Board is an arm of the State, set up and funded by the Department of Social Protection. According to its web site, it provides “information, advice and advocacy on a broad range of public and social services.”

4. Citizens Information Board [https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/birth-family-relationships/after-your-baby-is-born/registering-birth-your-baby/#e4a4d8], 4 Jul 2024.

5. Ibid.