In the Dark

How safe do you feel in the U.S, in your city, in your neighborhood, with your finances and personal information? For many the answer is that they don’t. It’s because we live in a system that subdues the general public; either they are policed or the system gives them just enough to live comfortably and not revolt. We live in a society where we are raised to perceive war as big, explosive, and bluntly violent. The reality of war in this age is no longer that exposed.

The real war is in the shadows. War is about attaining and maintaining the power in an epoch through any and all effective and efficient means. We live in an age of abundant information and wondrous technology. It’s all very promising and has brought the world closer and more peacefully together but it all also happens to be exceptionally harmful. Before I continue here is quote from an ancient Chinese general to consider:

“The supreme art of war

 is to subdue the enemy

without fighting” –Sun Tzu

In the book Freakonomics Stephen J. Dubner and Steven Levitt explain how gang leaders in the United States avoid violence and warring between one another because it’s bad for business (of course it still happens because the leaders aren’t the young men doing the work on the streets amped up and ready to fight). So how should this be any different from how the U.S and other countries conduct their affairs domestically and foreign.

Entities will use today’s technology to watch information and use it to subdue its enemies and even constituents without blunt force. Force will continue to be used but in more strategical ways such as we witness the militarization of the police in the United States. Homeland Security has already given technology called StingRay to Police across the United States which acts as if it were a cell tower so any phones in the area transmits and receives any data through it.

We have sensitive systems that run power plants, hospitals, banks, and more that can be hacked. The damage done can be amplified tenfold through these technologically advanced systems. Wars will be fought through crippling the enemies systems and using it and their information against them.

This is happening and it’s not just governments but people or other groups who doing this.  For example Edward Snowden who revealed sensitive government information on WikiLeaks and Anonymous who just allegedly hacked databased containing information of U.S senators involved with the KKK.

We will see informational and economic warfare much more prominently in this century.