The Future is Now

I just finished John Robb's book, "Brave New War." The subtitle is "The next stage of terrorism and the end of globalization." It doesn't really capture the total impact of the book. It's a great little read. And for me it was a real eye-opener to the world unfolding before our eyes right now. Robb really has a great critique of what's happening in Iraq, and as an ex-counter-terrorism planner and commander he's got the facts, and the ability to interpret them and he's unafraid to draw air-tight conclusions. For instance, our little adventure in Iraq is doomed, not because of politics, but because we are fighting an "open-source" enemy with a blunt instrument (the American Military) that is not built to fight that kind of war at all.

Suddenly so much of what's happening over there makes complete sense. And this "open source" approach is being adopted world wide. The tools that have allowed globalization to flourish are the same tools that are being used to stop it. The nation-state, is an old-world concept, a big, hulking beast that cannot effectively deal with the new world order. Laptops, cell phones, the internet really do turn our world up side down. Individuals suddenly do have amazing technology at their fingertips and small groups can create tremendous mischief, and wealth, and innovation, and well there's danger in that, and hope too.

Anyway, I highly recommend this book if you want to understand some of what seems like total madness in our day to day world. Robb also has a blog called Global Guerillas, where he documents this open source movement in other hot spots (they are increasing and learning from each other) around the world.

UPDATE: Almost forgot...our new little band, White Wolf & Sonic Princess and the Enthusiastikatz are heading up to Plateville, Wisconsin today to play at Freak Fest. It should be fun, as long as it's not too soggy. I'll be sharing the highlights in a day or so when we get back, I'll be off the internets for a day or so...