by Brian T. Lynch, MSW

To say we are at war isn’t hyperbole, or exaggeration. We are in a real war with real adversaries and real human consequences. It isn’t a Shock and Awe” kinetic war as in the past where things that go bang, although that happens occasionally.  It is a new type of  global war being waged against Western style, civilian controlled democracies. Our adversaries are powerful, and wealthy, and well on their way to dominating our world. But the most shocking fact is that this war has been raging and escalating, for decades while most of us remain aware.

The  Canadian professor, philosopher and media theorist, Marshall McLurhan predicted that this war was coming. Most of us know him by his quote, made famous in the 1960’s, “The medium is the message.” Few know he also said, “World War III will be a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation.” How could any of us have understood this at a time well before personal computers, email, the internet and social media?

The mechanisms of this war are relentless media attacks to alter our public discourse, weaken our faith in public institutions and self-government, amplify disunity along social fault lines, polarize our politics, distract us, alienate us and pits us against each other. It is a war that assaults our collective consciousness.  It erases or rewrites our history for sinister gain. It attacks our core beliefs, undermines our principles, debauches our morality, occludes our access to knowledge and obscures all truth. In the end, it re-sculpts our culture to better serve the enemies of civil society.

I know this account of the war will likely fall into the silent media abyss that swallows almost every minority narrative.  It is up to you and me to support the authentic voices of real people and insist that we be heard in social medium that surrounds us.

(end of part 1)

Part II

– The evidence of war is all around us.

– And who are these adversaries?  What do they want?

– It isn’t just me saying it either.

– Who are our allies in this war? Who do we recruit other citizens?

– Where is the People’s army in this war? What are their weapons? Who are our future heroes?

[If you have read this far, please help me write part 2 of this account of war by writing your responses to the topic listed above.  Take a risk. Speak out. Send me your ideas and links to articles you want me to read. Don’t make me write this alone… ]