The future of war is very different from its past, and the change is already in progress. I have
seen the future of war, and I have received its calling.
Old war is nation against nation, empire against empire. Old war has battle fields and tanks, aeroplanes
and gunships. Old war is waged by people, in the name of people, and its spoils are the land and the fruit thereof. Old war
received its mortal wound on the day that the first atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The old adage that world war two was the
'war to end all wars' may prove to be truer than people realise, although death is never an end, only ever a transformation.
When the people at the white house tell us that the nature of war is changing, they are right. Although
the popular conception of things seems to state otherwise, war is not as popular as it used to be. There are fewer conventional wars
and more peace now than at any time before. This is partly because of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass
destruction which, when possessed by both sides, make winning a war impossible. It is also due to mass media, and the fact
that we can all see the horrific consequences of war, which has led to a global trend of populations that are much more anti-war.
Organisations such as the UN and the general appetite for intervention and brokering peace deals
on the global stage, which was much less prevalent in past times, also probably have something to do with it.
But at the same time as old war is thrashing about in its death throws there is another
factor at work which is setting the conditions for the future of war. That factor is globalisation.
Mass migration and multicultural societies, cheap and instant global communication, multinational
corporations and media, and so on are all serving to blur the distinctions between the society and culture of each different
country.
The future of war is played out on the global stage; not nation against nation, but idea against
idea, godform against godform, morality against morality. The future of war does not take place on designated battlefields,
but within the hearts and minds of the people of the world. It is not primarily a material war, for wealth and territory,
but a spiritual war, for the alleigance of people to an ideal. The future of war is fought by gods, in the name of gods, and
the spoils of this war are the souls of humanity. The future of war is not fought with tanks and aeroplanes, but with memes.
The future is memetic warfare.
