IF YOU HAVE AN ID CARD, YOU ARE OWNED
- Madhukar Dama
- 10 hours ago
- 8 min read
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INTRODUCTION: THE INVISIBLE CHAIN
You think an ID card is just a document.
A convenience.
A harmless form of proof.
But it is proof of submission—a tag that says you don’t exist until someone in power confirms it.
It’s the quietest slavery of modern civilization.
You’re not free when you hold an ID.
You are registered property.
Not yours. Theirs.
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PART 1: WHAT IS AN IDENTITY CARD?
An ID card is a state-issued confirmation of your name, body, age, and location.
It may contain:
– Full name
– Date of birth
– Biometric data (fingerprint, iris)
– Religion or caste (in some systems)
– Unique number
– Photo
– Signature
Sounds innocent?
Now ask yourself:
Why do you need a document to prove you exist?
What kind of system demands your body to be matched against a number just to access food, work, education, or movement?
The answer:
A system that doesn’t trust you.
A system that doesn’t serve you.
A system that owns you.
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PART 2: WHO BENEFITS FROM YOUR ID?
Not you.
Your ID card is not made to help you live.
It is made to control how you live.
Who benefits?
1. Governments – track you, tax you, restrict you, draft you
2. Corporations – market to you, profile you, exploit your data
3. Police – identify, suspect, detain
4. Banks – monitor, freeze, deny
5. Hospitals – deny treatment without ID
6. Schools – require it to process your obedience
7. Employers – hire/fire based on it
8. Bureaucracies – deny you access unless you fit their form
You are not a person. You are a file.
And files can be deleted.
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PART 3: ID IS NOT FREEDOM. IT IS PERMISSION.
Modern people say:
> “Without ID, you can’t travel, vote, study, get vaccinated, buy land.”
Exactly.
That’s not freedom.
That’s permission-based existence.
When you carry an ID card:
– You cannot own land without registration
– You cannot cross borders without visa
– You cannot work without Aadhaar/PAN
– You cannot claim your dead father's money without identity proof
– You cannot even die without it—death certificates need matching ID
So your entire life—from birth to death—is not valid until the State says it is.
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PART 4: THE LOGIC OF OWNERSHIP
Ask:
What else carries ID?
– Cattle
– Dogs
– Prisoners
– Slaves
– Soldiers
– Employees
– Devices
– Vehicles
Everything that is tracked, limited, taxed, or punished must be identifiable.
You tag what you own.
Not what is free.
So when they gave you an ID at birth, they weren't empowering you.
They were marking their claim.
You were born wild.
The ID made you legal.
And legality is just another word for ownership by contract.
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PART 5: THE DEEP DAMAGE — BEHAVIORAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL
Once you're ID’d:
You lose anonymity
You obey more easily
You self-censor
You fear deletion or cancellation
You begin to believe your worth is defined by your documents
You are told:
“No Aadhaar, no ration.”
“No PAN, no salary.”
“No voter ID, no voice.”
So you shrink. You comply. You forget that every real right was stolen, then sold back as a favor—only with ID.
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PART 6: YOUR BODY IS NO LONGER ENOUGH
Once, your presence was your proof.
You were known by your village, your work, your words, your hands.
Now, your child cannot get vaccinated without an OTP.
A newborn cannot be counted unless registered.
A corpse cannot be buried unless biometrically matched.
This is not civilization.
This is digital colonization.
Even your breath must be accounted for in a database.
Even your shadow must be traceable by camera.
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PART 7: CAN YOU LIVE WITHOUT AN ID?
Yes.
It’s not easy. But yes.
Those who live off-grid, grow their food, homeschool, never register for government aid—they are not “illegal.”
They are simply unregistered humans in a registered world.
The system hates them because they are uncontrollable.
But here’s the truth:
You’re not born with an ID.
You’re born with a body.
And the body is enough.
It speaks. It moves. It proves itself.
The ID is for the system.
The body is for life.
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PART 8: OWNED BY NUMBERS, FREED BY PRESENCE
They say:
> “Without an ID, you're no one.”
The truth is:
Only someone who is dangerous to the system is kept outside it.
Only someone who refuses to be turned into data is considered invisible.
You are not invisible.
You are not lost.
You are just untagged.
And maybe—just maybe—this is the only way to truly live.
Not under a number.
But under the sky.
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CONCLUSION: THE TRUTH THEY HIDE BEHIND CARDS
If your existence can be denied by a piece of plastic,
then you never truly existed in their eyes.
You were never free.
You were just documented.
And documentation is domestication.
So the next time you hold your ID card,
don’t feel proud.
Feel warned.
Because if you need a card to prove you are human,
you are not the owner.
You are the owned.
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IF YOU HAVE AN ID CARD, YOU ARE OWNED
A Charles Bukowski–Style Rant for the Modern Slave
---
they slapped a name on your forehead
before your mother’s blood even dried.
wrapped you in plastic,
inked your foot like a goddamn parcel,
and whispered:
“Welcome to the system.”
they didn’t ask you if you wanted in.
they just typed you into a machine.
name, date, gender, religion.
a barcode baby.
not born.
processed.
you learned to say “thank you”
every time they asked for your proof.
ID please.
at the hospital.
at the exam hall.
at the bus station.
at the morgue.
at your own goddamn wedding.
you thought this was normal.
you thought this was love.
you thought this was progress.
they said,
“Without this card, you don’t exist.”
and you believed them.
like a dog believes the leash is its spine.
---
prisoners wear numbers.
soldiers wear tags.
cattle get ear marks.
dogs get microchips.
and you?
you got a wallet full of your own obedience.
you said:
“But it helps!
I get subsidies!
I get vaccinated!
I get to vote!”
yeah.
like a rat gets to press a button for food.
you traded your soul for a portal login.
---
your grandmother fed the village without Aadhaar.
your grandfather walked state borders barefoot, no visa.
your ancestors gave birth, built homes, died,
without being known to the government.
now you can’t take a piss on a train
without scanning your identity.
---
they took your name
and said it wasn’t enough.
they needed your face,
your eyes,
your fingerprint,
your school records,
your blood type,
your income,
your caste.
you gave it.
you gave it all.
because they told you
freedom is only real
when it's approved.
---
you are not living.
you are logged in.
you are not known.
you are monitored.
you are not trusted.
you are verified.
and one day,
when the power cuts,
when the network fails,
when the database crashes,
you will vanish
like an unpaid bill.
---
you think you own your life.
but look closer:
the land is in someone else's name.
your child is “enrolled.”
your house is “approved.”
your death is “certified.”
they will not bury you
without scanning your code.
your bones will rest under GPS.
---
you are not a citizen.
you are a number.
and numbers don’t rebel.
they are rounded.
divided.
taxed.
expired.
deleted.
---
but somewhere,
a woman grows food without a license.
a boy learns to read under a tree.
a man walks across three states with no wallet,
only a steel bottle and clean lungs.
and a baby is born in silence,
unnamed, untagged, unowned.
they say he doesn’t exist.
but maybe—
he’s the only one who does.
---
A HUGE HEALING DIALOGUE
"WE THOUGHT IDENTITY CARDS MEANT FREEDOM"
Setting: A hot, dusty afternoon in rural Karnataka. A middle-class family arrives to visit Madhukar, the off-grid healer who lives without documents, banks, hospitals, or screens. The family—Govind (52), Kavita (47), their children Rishi (24) and Asha (20), and Govind’s father (Appa, 77)—believe ID cards are essential for progress, safety, and dignity. But something in their lives has started to crack.
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Govind (father):
We’ve come with some questions, Madhukar.
We’ve always believed in being proper citizens.
We made sure the kids had every card—birth certificate, Aadhaar, PAN, voter ID, passport.
We’ve followed the rules.
But… we feel suffocated lately. Like we have no real say in anything.
We do everything right, yet… we’re invisible.
Madhukar (smiling faintly):
You are not invisible.
You are recorded.
There’s a difference.
Visibility is when people see you.
Recording is when systems monitor you.
---
Kavita (mother):
But without ID, how can anyone access what they’re entitled to?
Schools, hospitals, gas cylinders, pensions… you can’t get anything without ID!
Madhukar:
Exactly.
That’s not freedom.
That’s conditional existence.
If you need to show a card to prove your right to live,
your right was never yours.
It was leased.
---
Rishi (son):
But I’m proud of my passport.
I earned it.
I feel powerful when I flash it at airports.
Isn’t that identity?
Madhukar:
That’s branding.
You’re not a free man.
You’re a tagged citizen.
Your face, retina, fingerprint, signature, caste, blood type, tax history—it’s not yours anymore.
It’s theirs.
The passport doesn’t prove you exist.
It proves they permit your movement.
---
Asha (daughter):
But what’s the alternative?
Anarchy? No IDs, no bank accounts, no phone SIMs?
Isn’t that dangerous?
Madhukar:
What’s more dangerous—
A wolf in the forest, or a leash in your pocket that chokes you silently?
You’re afraid of chaos.
But you live in controlled panic.
CCTV on your street.
Aadhaar linked to your death certificate.
Your every action traceable.
And still—you are not safe.
---
Appa (grandfather):
When I was young, we didn’t have any cards.
People knew you by your walk, your field, your truth.
No one asked for your number to trust you.
Now my pension comes only if my thumb matches some machine.
Last year, the machine failed.
I starved for weeks.
They told me, “You don’t exist until the server says you do.”
That’s when I realized—I am no longer human.
I am a barcode.
---
Govind (slowly):
So all this time… we thought we were progressing.
But we were shrinking.
Reducing ourselves into entries, approvals, permissions.
Madhukar:
Exactly.
ID is not proof of humanity.
It’s proof of domestication.
You don’t need ID to grow food, love someone, or breathe.
You only need it when the system wants to track, extract, or restrict.
---
Kavita:
But isn’t it useful?
To stop crime, to prevent fraud, to organize welfare?
Madhukar:
It’s useful for rulers.
Not for you.
It’s easy to control a population that needs a number for everything.
They can freeze your account.
Deny your admission.
Delete your pension.
Silence your protest.
With just a click.
Useful?
Yes—for control.
But not for freedom.
---
Rishi (murmuring):
Then what is freedom, Madhukar?
Madhukar:
Freedom is waking up without checking a message.
Eating without scanning a QR code.
Traveling without a license.
Learning without registration.
Healing without paperwork.
Dying without certification.
Freedom is when your body is enough proof that you are alive.
---
Asha:
But what if we refuse? What if we step out of it?
Can we really survive?
Madhukar:
You won’t just survive.
You’ll remember how to live.
Start small.
Grow your food.
Trade with trust.
Homeschool your children.
Build with your hands.
Love with your eyes.
And slowly, you’ll see—
You are not your card.
You are your presence.
---
Appa (with tears):
I thought modern India meant rising.
Now I see it meant registering.
And losing your soul in the process.
---
Govind (resolved):
We may not burn our cards today.
But we’ll stop worshipping them.
We’ll stop saying:
“Thank god we have Aadhaar.”
And start saying:
“Thank life we still have our breath.”
---
Madhukar:
That’s all you need.
The sky, the soil, and the breath.
Anything else that demands a number
was never meant to be sacred.
---
The family leaves without asking for a selfie, a certificate, or a receipt.
They walk back lighter—not because they left anything behind,
but because they stopped carrying what never belonged to them.
Because they remembered:
You are not free because you have an ID.
You are free only when you don’t need one.
