Review of Brave New War #6

Review of Brave New War by John Robb (Continued).

Guerrilla Entrepreneurs are driven by a range in motivation. Some are mercenary; most are not (as being driven solely to fight for pay). Circumstances dictate the means and methods. Some do not kill. Their targets are physical infrastructure and systems, such as targeting critical nodes and transmission lines. Computer systems may also be threatened. The Guerrilla Entrepreneur is exploiting the weakness of Maximum Advantage. Technical efficiency as final consideration leads towards connectivity thus inevitable spawning many unintended consequences. A primary conflict point occurs along cultural lines. Once a dominant culture succumbs to the lure of Maximum Advantage, it will force itself upon all others via contact vectors. Interestingly (or not), the technical morality meanwhile smothers all the competition by buying it out, then pushing it to the population. As the boundary is reached, the spaces are filled in. The original only occurs one as the bizarre becomes common place. Along lines of popular culture*, this behavior is transmitted in all its decadent glory. Guerrilla Entrepreneurs may also utilize the same media techniques with increasing sophistication. Indeed, being small their propaganda may be altered as necessary in almost real time. A committee does not need to meet and discuss the matter for months to change tact and approach. Psychological warfare is inevitably employed in modern conflicts. Internal battles are no exception.

* I would recommend Tom Frank (in general) and The Baffler crew for those readers interested in bashing the cutting edge.