Information Wars - used to be the stuff of foreign battlefields. Thanks, Progressives, for bringing it to the 'hood! - Granite Grok

Information Wars – used to be the stuff of foreign battlefields. Thanks, Progressives, for bringing it to the ‘hood!

This shift stems, in large part, from the movement from a predominately resource and tangible goods-based economy to an information-based one. In the past, political struggles were largely fought over how to divide up the spoils generated by the basic productive economy; labor, investors and management all shared a belief in the ethos of economic growth, manufacturing and resource extraction.

In contrast, today’s new hegemons hail almost entirely from outside the material economy, and many come from outside the realm of the market system entirely. . . . To understand the possible implications of the new power arrangement, it is critical to understand the nature of the new clerisy. Unlike traditional capitalist power groups, including private-sector organized labor, the clerisy’s power derives not primarily through economic influence per se but through its growing power to inform opinion and regulate everything from how people live to what industries will be allowed to grow, or die.

First reaction – Ah!  instead of the information war that our external enemies, Viet Nam and Ho Chi Minh, and the Iraq War and Al Queda, we’ll have that information war waged against our citizens that “dissent” from Progressive orthodoxy.  Splendid – what POSSIBLY could go wrong??

Even though the country lives in a materially rich state (far beyond what even royalty had back in the late 1800s / early 1900s when royalty really had royal lifestyles), it is the information demarcation that seems to be the focus of politics now.  Instead of the Have-nots vs the Haves (the Have-nots have out-houses, the rich have indoor plumbing), it is now more of the “not have as much or the same quality” as Heritage has pointed out (Example: the Have-nots have a car worth a couple of thousand while the rich’s is a couple of hundred thousand – both still take you somewhere you want to go) .  All of the current propaganda is set on that cusp – remember, Obama redefined what poverty was no longer in absolute income terms but in relative to the rich’s income (setting into law what Jesus said long ago “the poor you will have with you always” (Matt 26:6-13) – Obama has just codified it into law).

But for all of that, one thing still exists – the material foundation serves as that base on which that information society exists.  What these chuckleheads don’t realize that in pursuing their info-war in this informational society, they can also destroy that material producing society in the process (as they are deliberately doing with the coal industry – but what will be the unexpected collateral damage to other parts of “the makers”, the people and processes that creates the stuff that allows an informational society to exist?).

It is a much harder world to conduct a 24/7 propaganda war when everybody has to hand pump their own water and wash their clothes on rocks…

(H/: Instapundit)

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