With ever increasing intensity and in response to single events that are happening around the globe, people are talking about there being a risk of a third world war. In English, we would say that it is almost like humanity is collectively holding its breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Waiting for the day that world war is actually declared. But the reality is very different than what people currently understand. The reality is that the world is already at war. And the vast majority of people don’t even know it. But that raises the question, how could it be that a person doesn’t know they are in a war? Today, I’m going to explain this to you so that it all makes sense. And hopefully, this will clarify a lot of what is happening for you.
If I ask you to give me some images of what war looks like, you would immediately think of cannons being shot, people hacking through each other with swords, bombs being dropped, people being run through with bayonets, people being abducted and separated from each other, buildings being blown up by air strikes and grenades, people being shot at point blank or people being tortured in concentration camps. What does all of this have in common? You would be thinking of physical violence. What you have not accounted for is the fact that you and everyone else living today have come from centuries and centuries of war looking one way. And that way, is physical violence. But that does not mean that physical violence is the way that war must look or always has, and always will look. This bias is to be expected. To give you an example that will illustrate what I mean, people associated having light in the dark with fire for thousands of years. They could not have conceptualized of light in the dark looking like electricity. Until that is suddenly what it looked like.
In order to really wrap your head around this, I ask you to do a mental exercise. At its root, war is really a conflict. Politicians and organizations and citizens decide that entering into that conflict, despite the potential negative consequences of conflict, is worth it for this reason or that reason. And everyone who joins the conflict is operating from their motivating reason. Another way of putting this is to say that conflicts are initiated with the aim of achieving a favorable outcome or achieving some desired state of affairs. When it comes to war, this favorable outcome or those desired state of affairs are in opposition to someone else’s perceived best interests. And when it comes to war, where this goes is that both parties arm themselves against the other. This is a fancy way of saying that they use tools to increase their power to bring about their own perceived best interests. Think weapons.
So, for this exercise, put aside your resistance to war and instead, try to think like someone who has decided war is necessary. If it helps, you can pick someone you know about who is in power today and that you think would be likely to get into a war. From there, pretend to think like them. Most especially, think about what your motivations for war may be. With that in mind, think of the best strategies to attain your aim in this day and age. And most especially, think about what the best weapons might be in this day and age. Feel free to pause this video and think about it, before you continue.
Hopefully where this exercise brought you is that there are far better tactics and weapons in this day and age than marching at each other in a phalanx formation with swords in our hands or dropping atom bombs or invading an area with tanks. In fact, these physically violent strategies and weapons are just one of the tools that you have in your tool basket. You definitely want to keep that tool in case using that tool turns out to be the best move at some point in the game. But you know that this is not really a smart way of doing war. There are far smarter ways of doing war. Such better strategies and far more effective tools. So, let’s look at some of the weapons that are being used in the war of this new day and age. And I assure you, this is only a small list of the possible tools.
You have cyber-attacks where you disrupt critical infrastructure and hack into information that damns the other side. You have disinformation campaigns where you stir up public fear and spread lies to sway public opinion and undermine the citizens trust in some way that supports your aim. You have the creation of public crises and pinning it on someone else and then acting as the savior for the very thing you created, so that the people are terrified and give their trust and loyalty and power to you in a way where you can go do something the people would normally object to, but now support. You have economic sanctions which puts extreme economic pressure on the other side to try to get them to comply. You have the limiting and blocking of travel. You have flooding the public with mixed messages and conflicting information so that you put the people in a state of cognitive dissonance which makes them anxious, disoriented and confused. You can then exploit that to polarize them or give them a way to resolve that dissonance that serves your aim. You have the cunning use of AI. You have election interference and tampering with election results. You have political subversion where you undermine a government or politician’s legal status, trustworthiness, authority, stability or legitimacy so as to overthrow them in a covert way. After all, subversion is a far less risky tactic than all out revolution. You have supporting crypto currency and conversely, taking down crypto currency. You have distraction, so you can use information platforms to get everyone to pay attention to one thing, so you can do something they would object to, without their notice. You have forcing compliance from social media platforms. You have satellites and the myriad of ways you might be able to use them. You have threatening, infiltrating, strong arming, purchasing, bribing and corrupting the press. You have biological weaponry, famine and deprivation of specific resources, which you can make look like a natural event and so people can’t attribute the casualties or consequences to you. You have influencing and bribing and threatening people who influence government decisions, laws and the public, such as politicians and celebrities. You have the creation of and fueling of ideological divides. You have the inflaming of patriotism. You have murder and assassination of prominent figures that oppose you. You have deportation of anyone who does not align with your goals. You have making everyone dependent on what you provide so you can withhold or give them their need and by doing so, have total control over them. You have covert war where you use espionage, psychological operations to influence the state of a target population, conceal people’s identities, deny responsibility and use covert operations and tactics. You have inciting nationalism. You have the bribing and use of terrorist organizations to conduct operations that serve your aim, but that are hard to attribute or respond to directly. And don’t forget, you also have traditional military tactics. Again, this list is super limited for all the different strategies one might use in today’s world to fight a war.
And don’t forget that having the public KNOW that a war is happening, is only one potential strategic move to take in a war. It really benefitted leaders in a day and age where they needed numbers to physically overpower the adversary. They needed men to enlist and engage in physical violence. And war used to be an excellent opportunity for a man to gain social esteem and do the right thing. People do not see war as the right thing anymore. War’s reputation is ruined. And so it does not have the support it once did. Nor does anyone who engages in it. So, it may just be a better strategy today to not tell people. Even to gaslight them about it. To go to extreme lengths to paint a different picture for the public. It may also be a better strategy to fuel an ideological war against men and masculinity, so there are no men to rise up and fight against you.
People across the world are waiting on the edge of their seats for a formal declaration of war. Or for physically violent conflict to escalate to the point where someone in a position of authority (be it a president or politician or military professional or the press) to put that label on it and tells them it is happening. People do not understand the nature of a silent war. Nor do many people understand that formal declarations like this do not necessarily mark the beginning of a war, even when they are made. The true nature of the beginning of a specific war is often something that becomes obvious only when looking back on the whole thing to find defining events and how those events created chain reactions. Basically, the picture often comes into view, only in retrospect.
The war of today’s world is one that looks on the surface like a disorienting, confusing mess of every tool there is for any party involved in this war to gain power. But what it really is, is a very sophisticated use of a myriad of psychological, emotional, physical and social weapons and tactics that are being used by all the many parties involved in this war. Basically, this war will keep taking on different forms to suit whatever the goal is at any given specific time. And so much of this war is also happening behind the curtain so to speak. This means, physical violence (yes, this means the dropping of a single bomb) will only happen if that is the best tool and strategy for someone involved to achieve their aim at a specific time and in a specific situation. Rather than every country being embroiled in outright physical violence, at this time, it looks like eruptions of the physical violence form of war in certain isolated areas. As if that is the only place that war is happening and between those two parties within the larger world. When in fact, these conflicts are proxy wars.
Because this is the case, and the things being done in this multiplayer chess match are changing so often and so fast, navigating the world in a time like this; knowing what to do and what not to do is really, really hard. People who have been through wars past have definitely faced certain elements of this war before. But not others! And so, we really haven’t faced a situation like this before. Which means, there is no rule-book for it. I do not say this to make you feel powerless or scare you, even though this is probably what knowing this makes you feel. I say this so you will take pressure off of yourself to know perfectly what to do in the landscape of today’s world and to stop feeling like something is wrong with you for not knowing what to do. The confusion and even decision paralysis you are experiencing is a completely normal response to what is happening. And you will find that knowing the bigger picture of what is going on, will help with both.
It is so important to know that the war of today not looking like it once did, is not down to humanity evolving beyond physical violence. It is a serious lack of conscious awareness, if not basic intelligence to think that physical violence is the worst form that war can take. The war of today is simply far more sophisticated and effective than it once was. And many of the tactics being used are far more abusive.
One of the saddest parts of this modern type of warfare is that people do not understand why they feel the way they feel. We all know that wartime is horrible to experience. It takes a serious toll on people. But when people know the world is at war and they understand what is going on, the things they are experiencing and the ways they are feeling makes sense to them. In this war, so many of the symptoms of war are there. Just to give you some examples of this: Many people have lost a sense of hope for the future and many believe they cannot attain what they want in the future. This has led to a mass issue with not being able to plan for the future. Many people feel that something is “off”. Many people are feeling dread, numbness or a sense of unreality. Many people are succumbing to “us” and “them” thinking, becoming increasingly nationalistic. People are suffering from intensified digital surveillance and censorship under the explanation of it being in the name of national security and public health. Fear of governments and people in positions of authority is rampant. Many people are suffering from financial inflation. A lot of people at the age to start families are deciding not to bring a baby into the world at this time. Supply chains are being disrupted. People are under so much stress; it is hard for them to believe that anyone made life work before. Many people feel like danger is everywhere and the world feels increasingly dystopian. On top of this more and more people are openly talking about apocalypse, collapse or dystopia. Many people are stockpiling, buying land and talking about living off the grid, if not actively moving off the grid. People feel they can’t handle all the bad things happening in the news. Protests are escalating around the world. The police forces are being militarized. Many people feel they are losing their rights. Many people are fleeing their homes and home countries or are thinking about it. Many people are afraid of speaking out or feel they are fighting for freedom of speech. Laws are changing drastically and this is justified as being temporary and for public safety. Global tensions are becoming local ones. And local ones are becoming global ones. People are dealing with rampant propaganda as well as conflicting and radical content daily. Food, energy and money is being weaponized. There are radical movements cropping up all over the place. People fear that being who they are could make them an enemy of the state. For example, being this religion or that religion, this political persuasion or that political persuasion, this race or that race, this sexual orientation or that sexual orientation. If you look deep into each of these littler, isolated wars going on, you find they are all in fact, interconnected. And these interconnected crises are breaking down the boundaries between local and global conflict, essentially drawing nations and alliances into a broader struggle for dominance and survival. People are having to navigate the constantly changing landscape of geopolitical flux… which county is an adversary or ally to which other country, which person in power is an ally or enemy to which other person in power. They are having to face all the various impacts this flux and back and forth has on their lives. Some countries are speaking about imposing mandatory serving time for citizens in the military. For a lot of citizens, everything feels harder and more expensive. People are exhausted, overwhelmed and nothing feels safe. Being tossed and turned in this global conflict, they don’t know who or what to believe anymore.
It is so important to remember that one person’s experience during wartime, is very different than another’s. For example, the experience of someone living as a Jew in Poland in 1939 during WW2 was very different than the experience of someone living as a Buddhist in Bhutan in 1939 during WW2. Hell, the experience of a tall, blonde and blue eyed German living in the countryside near Bamberg Germany in 1939 was very different than the experience of a tall, blonde and blue eyed German living in Munich, Germany in 1939. This is still true today. So, to see what is going on in the world, we need to be able to look beyond our own limited personal experience.
The things people are experiencing and the way they are feeling are consistent with wartime. But as far as they know, no war is happening. So, their reality doesn’t make sense to them. And so, people start to think something is wrong with them for thinking how they are thinking and feeling how they feel. And it is my hope that because you know all of this information, after today, you will no longer feel this way.
