The growing power of small groups, and accordingly the increasing potential for resistance by terrorists, criminals, and other destructive actors to national states and civil societies, is due to a number of reasons. Similarly, innovative technologies misused by small groups has also affected the country to a great extent. “Secession – Dividing The States” – a great American Historiography by Spencer M. Wertheimer who gives a wake-up call to the urgent need for a reckoning in America – is an in-depth analysis of the country’s potential divisions based on the persistent issues it has been facing for decades. So, this blog post by Wertheimer will help you understand some of the major problems highlighted in this literary masterpiece. Keep reading!
The Impact of Information and Communication Technologies
The key factor in increasing the power of small groups and individuals is the development of information and communication technologies.
On the one hand, the development of these technologies has led to the Internet of everything, and accordingly to the ability not only to destroy, but also to take control of any systems connected to the Internet through cyberspace.
On the other hand, information and communication technologies dramatically reduce the cost of production processes and make many products, equipment, etc. available to small groups.
Finally, information technologies are largely developing outside the intellectual property protection system based on open-source solutions.
Accordingly, small groups and even individual citizens can receive the latest developments in critical technologies, such as artificial intelligence, essentially for free.
The Evolution of Financial Systems and Shadow Banking
The change in the technological, institutional and legal foundations of the global financial and economic system opens up the possibility for various actors – from criminal syndicates to religious groups – to launder, accumulate and transport money and other assets without control.
According to available data, approximately 6 trillion dollars out of the total amount of 19 trillion dollars in offshore zones are currently located in offshore zones, mainly under British and Dutch jurisdictions.
Shadow banking has been gaining momentum over the past 40 years. However, due to the accounting, financial and legal solutions currently used, with the political will of the international community, all these 6 trillion can be blocked within a day. Banks, and accordingly regulators, know very well who owns this money, when and under what contract it was received.
Only the absence of a political decision allows the modern banking system not to provide information and not to carry out appropriate confiscatory actions.
The Disruption of Traditional Financial Systems by Innovative Technologies
The rapid development of cryptocurrencies, unregulated payment services, many new finance platforms, such as crowd investing, crowdlending, etc. puts an end to the banking system. The reason is that they are moving rapidly towards dominating central banks, national jurisdiction, and stored transactions.
The peculiarity of the new financial economy is that even with the presence of political will, the further, the more it becomes impossible to understand the sources and location of financial resources or other assets.
The Dual-Use Nature of New Technologies
The multifunctional nature of any modern technology makes its contribution. Almost the same mechanical units, computer programs, and technological solutions can be used in military and civil, as well as in criminal and terrorist activities.
The overwhelming majority of new high technologies appear on the broad market even faster than those of the state.
In combination with effective recruiting and telecommunications systems, this dramatically increases the power of non-state destructive forces, including rebels, terrorists, criminals, etc.
In fact, States History of USA shows that national security and economic development have benefited technological advances. However, new technologies have also been abused by ill-intentioned groups, exposing the multifaceted challenges of balancing innovation with security.
The Threats of Information Warfare and Post-Truth
During the last decade, the world has witnessed an unprecedented use of the information environment to ensure the controlled degradation of cognitive processes in society, its fragmentation and disinformation.
Destructive processes have prevailed in the information sphere today. If decisive actions are not taken in the near future, they will determine the information landscape of the next two decades.
During the first 25 years of the Internet’s development, cyberspace united people of good will and created an unprecedented environment of knowledge, trade and communication.
We can thus say that during the next 25 years, the information sphere may become a place of destruction of values and the foundations of society, undermining any common interests and a field of global information warfare.
Responsibility of Major Tech Companies in Information Fragmentation
Responsibility for the ongoing processes lies with companies, such as Google, Facebook, etc. These are the companies that created the Internet bubbles. They were the ones who pushed the segmentation of society into communities in pursuit of an audience. They were the ones who crossed out the difference between reality and fiction, equally represented in search results and Twitter messages. They were the ones who opened the way to post-truth as the main content of the content of the current Internet.
The Consequences of Information Warfare on Political Structures
The fight without rules in the information space at the interstate and intrastate level will lead to the fact that the established political classes will cease to exist, civil societies will be disorganized and demoralized. Accordingly, small radical centers across the entire political and ideological spectrum will benefit.
The Destructive Power of Small Groups in Modern Societies
The rise of power among individuals and groups is predominantly destructive rather than constructive. Small groups are intransigent toward civil society and can achieve much in destruction, but not in the development of constructive solutions or in achieving consensus among the contradictory interests that may exist in every society, as illustrated by Wertheimer in his book related to ‘America A History.’
Small groups are vulnerable to:
- Democratic governments. Small groups can create great difficulties in any concerted effort to form broad coalitions based on compromises of common interests. Even if compromises are reached, small groups can make it difficult to implement them.
- Political parties. Small groups are interested in undermining traditional political parties as a tool for aggregating individual interest groups. The most far-sighted small groups are conducting long-term work to capture political parties from within by fragmenting them and radicalizing individual movements.
- Authoritarian-minded leaders. Small groups within the multi-segment Internet, the emergence of P2P networks, the spread of anonymization tools, are capable of splitting any information unity with relatively long-term activity. Due to active actions in the information space, which require an order of magnitude fewer resources than physical actions, small groups are capable of creating the effect of presenting themselves as an influential political force. This effect can be transferred, ultimately, from virtuality to reality. As a result, small groups, acting steadfastly and consistently, can take control of large communities.
Small groups, innovative technology, and fast information production are posing challenges and reshaping our world. For getting deeper insights into our country’s historical and ongoing issues, including History Of Education In America, read Spencer M. Wertheimer’s book, emphasizing an urgent need for a reckoning in America.