World War III Hyperbole

Honest question...is it too hyperbolic to assert that we (collectively) are already fighting World War III? Not that we’re getting perilously close, but that we are in it; neck deep in the next Wellsian “War to End All Wars.” I can explain...maybe. Ok, probably not, but humor me. That’s what Tayken on the Q is all about. A selfish exercise in sanity with an option for other curious masochists to come along for the ride.

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In 1740, Jacob Dickert began experimenting with a long barreled musket with a groove in the barrel. They called this new innovation a rifle. Thus kicking off the last war.

This war unfolded over centuries and phases, but was fundamentally about the deliberate and strategic use of industrializing technology to deliver escalating levels of destructive energy. Power during this era most certainly came from the barrel of a gun and the alliance between technology and industry proceeded from battle to battle to move us progressively higher and higher on the ladder of destruction; escalating until we reached the beginning of the end of the last war with atomic power at Hiroshima.

But much earlier, in 1917, a young Edward Bernays was asked to help the American war effort by applying his uncle Freud’s theories of the unconscious to a new German technique called “propaganda”. Thus initiating the current war; truly the last war.

While we continued to fight the last war in trenches and hedgerows, a new form of war was developing in medias res. This war wasn’t one of destructive force in the energetic sense, but one fought on an entirely different battlefield—a landscape of sense and meaning. Guns, germs and steel have given way to spies, lies, and seductive distraction.

By the 1970’s it was clear to anyone watching that the old way of waging war was basically over. It mattered little how many bombs were dropped on Vietnam. The real war was to be found in the battle over hearts and minds...deep monkey minds.

The technology of war moves quickly. In the span of one and a half centuries, the last war leapt from long rifles to repeating rifles to gatling guns, and then all the way to the euphemistic Little Boy. The warfighters of World War III haven’t dawdled in the least. The wars of culture, meaning, and purpose have seen innovation on an exponential curve. The artisanal efforts of Bernays and Goebbels have been left far in the past by modern methods. Consider this: concepts like “false flag” and “deep state” are now part of our shared vocabulary. Everyone is familiar with confirmation bias and psyops. I don’t think it’s far-fetched to say that we are all James Jesus Angleton, or at least capable of identifying with, if not channeling him directly.

By my far from fully qualified estimation, we are getting rather close to the Hiroshima moment of World War III. Perhaps we are in the moral equivalent of trench warfare, or storming the beaches of Normandy. It’s hard to say. After all, the main thrust of the current war is that making any sense at all is getting harder and harder—elusive temporally detached by design.

Take a look at Syria—or replace Syria with COVID. What exactly is happening? With just a surface level scan, one can find at least six radically different and plausible narratives:

• Assad used poison gas on his people and the United States bombed his airbase in a measured response.

• Assad attacked a rebel base that was unexpectedly storing poison gas and Trump bombed his airbase for political reasons.

• The Deep State in the United States is responsible for a “false flag” use of poison gas in order to undermine the Trump Insurgency.

• The Russians are responsible for a “false flag” use of poison gas in order to undermine the "deep state".

• Putin and Trump collaborated on a “false flag” in order to distract from “Russiagate”.

• Someone else (China? Israel? Iran?) is responsible for a “false flag” for purposes unknown.

And, just to make sure we really grasp the level of absurdity:

• There was no poison gas attack. The “white helmets” are fake news for purposes unknown and everyone who is in a position to know is spinning their own version of events for their own purposes.

Think this last one is implausible? Are you sure? Do you know the current limits of the war on sensemaking; of sock puppets, cognitive hacking, and weaponized memetics? The Social Dilemma, while useful, merely scratches the surface of how insidious things have become. All I am certain of about Syria (or COVID, or name your complex situation of choice) is that I really have no fucking idea what is going on. And that this state of affairs—this increasingly generalized condition of complete disorientation—is deeply untenable.

By the end of the last war, the world found itself face-to-face with the sobering realization that continuing progress in the art of killing had reached a sort of terminal velocity. We had become so good at destruction (scientifically) that unless we were very, very careful, we would end up killing everyone and everything.

If anything, the current war is even more dangerous (psychologically). As our ability to make shared sense evaporates and as meaning and purpose are fragmented into a field of endless shards, it becomes increasingly difficult to make good choices. In fact, it becomes increasingly difficult to even want to make good choices. Therein lies my true concern.

I suspect that we do have some runway left. It would be hard to argue that we’ve reached the end of our existential rope, but it does seem imperative that we come to a shared acceptance that none of our current institutions are trust-worthy. This war rests on our ability to establish a sort of shared conviction that we (the network) can and must (re)build trust ourselves. We have the tools, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to convince me that we have the time. 

I hope you'll join me at EthDenver (February 11-20, 2022) to find out if Web3 might just be the Gwei. #THISISTHEGWEI

Ok, on to the good stuff...

Taykentots I'm currently snacking on:

• Policy: Web3 Policy Hub (a16z)

• Web3 Inspiration: A Declaration of the Interdependence of Cyberspace

• Novel Non-fungibility: Blue CEO 

• Governance: State of the DAOs (Bankless Writers Guild)

I love hearing back (and always reply), so don't hesitate.

With ❤️ and skepticism,
TAYKΞN
LEF | THL | FW3 | TIS