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by Gabriel July , 2024 from LibreSolutionsNetwork Website
is a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation."
I don't pretend to have all the answers, but there are useful guides to follow.
In the words of Spartacus:
We're reminded to consider who has always had a hand in orchestrating and profiting off wars:
Unfortunately, this isn't immediately helpful.
Just as the atom bomb changed the balance of power between nations of the world, network warfare, where dynamic super-national forces engage in a global civil war, the game has changed immensely.
As super-wealthy cliques accrue wealth and power that rivals nations, governments themselves can easily become mere strategic objectives in larger games.
24 November
2023
The only difference is that both people themselves, and our means of waging war, have the potential to be so disconnected from pre-existing structures of tribes, faiths or nations.
Never before have the warmongers of the past had the entire world potentially at their mercy, as well as the entire population. This form of warfare is total unrestricted warfare and encompasses all aspects of participation in human society.
It has been said that
"the person is political," paired with the acknowledgement that
politics is warfare waged through other means, we understand our
predicament more clearly.
Malthusians will tell you:
Tyrants of all scopes of ambition realize that the source of all earthly power stems from effective cooperation between human beings.
This requires
them to use more and more sophisticated means of coercion to not
undermine the value of total control.
The physical, economic and even digital empires run by many or even a few are competing for dominance over you and others. Lending your strength or allegiance to one may or may not be mutually exclusive with others.
This naturally leads one to wonder if they can opt-out entirely, abandon the game of conquest and live a life of peace.
We can always pray this is possible but it's important to recognize that we inherit circumstances that make this require much more intense work than merely not choosing to commit overt aggression...
Even when direct violence is involved, there is a wide array of ephemeral "slow-kill" means available.
Normalcy bias and plausible deniability allow atrocities to take place without recognition or recourse.
Quiet weapons doing minor cumulative damage can make a significant impact despite going undetected and being difficult to attribute.
To make matters worse, responsibility can be diffused by providing a vast array of self-destructive means of illusory relief.
Various techniques such as propaganda, spycraft or even financial engineering can make relatively straightforward attacks work through an incomprehensible maze of complexity.
In these circumstances, people only identify the pain, not the source of it.
As people continuously transform themselves into "the boy who cried wolf" over and over, the populace becomes numb to the sensation of danger.
In circumstances where this numbness has taken hold, people are no longer able to act on their self-preservation instincts, creating easy targets for even the most blatant schemes.
The ability to control, restrict or modify the flow of information gives anyone a significant advantage over others.
Pairing this with a sophisticated understanding of people's natural desires, fears and hopes is a phenomenally powerful weapon to wield against individuals and groups alike.
Beyond merely being a blunt instrument to rally compliance, propaganda can be weaponised to turn people against themselves, even individually.
This immensely toxic pattern mass-produces people who are hurting and who are readily able to hurt others.
It provides the state with the pretext to more overtly and more aggressively dominate the financial system.
This leads to the mass financial and social engineering of the economic structure to support the war effort.
It's hard to imagine the long-term incentive changes when an entire industry becomes a creature of the MIC [military-industrial complex].
When states and super-national entities harness such massive economic power to run sprawling computing power to mechanize warfare,
Cyberwar
When people imagine cyberwars, they often think of shocking news stories of ransom-ware attacks by shady hacker groups.
This is a very serious concern, but another quite troubling development is the digitization of warfare which has accelerated since people's very lives have become technologically transformed.
The technological dimension of warfare is staggering.
The tragic irony is that warfare has generally been quite human.
Warriors throughout history taking up arms against other people across the globe, or even within their own regions, have always had to contend with the atrocities up close.
It seems that we may be on the cusp of witnessing this change in real time.
Surveillance
Data collected for seemingly innocuous purposes can quickly become military intelligence.
There are many non-intuitive uses for even seemingly insignificant data points collected over time.
A serious challenge caused by industrialized surveillance is "information asymmetry," where information is known to few but unknown to a great many.
Just as cyber threats blur the lines between military and civilian targets, domestic surveillance becomes more of a priority for troubled regimes.
Machine Learning
It would be naive, if not outright dangerous to underestimate the consequences of military use of machine learning, and how it can move to dominate our lives.
Artificial intelligence is its own buzzword, but one must not fall into the trap of thinking it's all worthless.
Machine errors can be devastating and must not be used to downplay accountability.
Between 2022 and 2023 US Department of Defence spending on AI-related contracts jumped from $269 million to $4.3 billion.
It is concerning at minimum that this huge amount of resources in military uses of machine learning effectively drains talent from non-combat uses, which could actually improve people's lives and solve serious problems.
While it is true that military advancements in technology eventually "trickle down" this only happens after an immense amount of avoidable suffering, it is not without cost either.
Dominating Cyberspace
The Internet, despite its flaws, is a valuable tool for transmitting critical information.
During times of conflict, it is a common tactic for powers to cut off access as a means of restricting information or aid. It is a mistake to believe that an Internet shutdown means that others cannot use their own private (or military) networks to maintain connectivity.
This means that,
Cutting off internet access can also be done in parts.
Sophisticated techniques can be used to deny, filter and even manipulate content given enough resources. In many circumstances, it may be preferable to simply inspect network traffic rather than outright block it.
Interfering with communications changes behavior but silently monitoring generally doesn't.
Cyber Attacks
Just as the lines between the physical and digital realities blur in our lives, so too do they in warfare.
The more critical systems that depend on inter-connected online services, the more brittle and vulnerable people are to malicious (state-backed or not) entities.
The impact can be devastating with little distinction between civilian and military targets. Because of this, major cyberattacks certainly get the headlines.
The impact of disruptive attacks on infrastructure cannot be overstated but the risk management solutions by the regime can be just as troubling.
Governments have made it clear that information counter to their interests being disseminated itself is seen no different as a "cyberattack."
In recent years there has been greater emphasis on manipulating minds in the name of safety and national security.
A regime that treats its own citizens as if they were any other computing resource will justify very troubling means to meet its objectives.
As non-combatants, it is not merely enough to demand secure systems.
It is crucial that we do not allow the fear of cyberwars to allow institutions to take over our digital or actual lives. There is immense pressure building for people to set aside digital autonomy or even their civil rights in the name of safety.
One must be cautioned that conceding these, is a road to supporting atrocities without even the pretext of accountability.
By being cow-towed into dependence on the regime the public can very well make themselves unknowing accomplices in what they would otherwise resist with all their might.
Mechanized Murder
As mechanized murder has become more advanced, and various technologies specialize in broader "soft-kill" capabilities, the circumstances become grim in unimaginable ways.
Despite conflicts feeling vastly distant for many North Americans, warfare is as real as it has ever been.
For decades we have seen how many techniques and weapons of war are first tested in remote conflicts and then eventually assimilated into the domestic control structure.
This raises the stakes when it comes to our moral culpability in supporting such actions.
Just as more powerful weapons expand our capacity to unleash terrible atrocities, automated weapons make each decision carry an immense amount of moral weight.
Instead of responsibility being diffused between dozens of people, each reacting in the moment, a single person shoulders the entire responsibility for an orchestra of death and destruction.
Becoming a Peacemaker
If you are not already convinced, I would hope that you would consider taking on the role of peacemaker.
Despite what the overwhelming propaganda would have you believe, we all have an opportunity to push for peace.
By connecting with those around you and working to understand and resolve even minor disputes, greater impacts can build over time.
It is good to be proactive in asking ourselves if our words and actions dehumanize others or build trust and empathy.
Taking action in your own life to withdraw your support and presence from institutions and structures that support senseless violence is highly admirable.
It is your burden to take on the massive undertaking of consciously evaluating how you support or hold accountable various human endeavors without losing faith.
When one sees how bleak things are, it becomes easy to judge.
We are all born into cycles that must be broken. Feeling superior to others or more morally righteous is a prideful pathway to turning into what one wishes to fight.
Taking the time to understand others' frame of mind and how to build trust and understanding,
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