Demographic Warfare

Arherring,

thank you featuring my writing. I think you’re right about demographic warfare not being 5GW. I just thought I suggest it?

“To be able to cause a target to think of something through the lens of a specific identity is, as far as I am concerned, is the most subtle and effective manipulation of context possible, and therefore 5GW.” (Arherring)

I think you may be on to something here? The US elites have been socializing European Americans to feel ashamed of their identity for the last 40 years. The basic historical narrative we’re taught in the American education system and American media system is that of the “whites as oppressor’s, non-whites as the oppressed” narrative. European Americans are also taught that its forbidden to have ethnocentric feelings (unless its the flag waving ‘great American’ variety) and are socialized into believing that they have no legitimate ethnic-interests.

This form of warfare has been so successful that European Americans (And Western Europeans) have become the most self-hating people in the history of the world. This is commonly referred to as “White Guilt.”

By injecting the sickness of “White Guilt,” the elites have has an easy time forcing the European American working/middle classes to accept mass immigration, affirmative action, violence, forced busing, loss of community, and racial quotas.

After the riots in the 60’s, the elites figured it was easier to conduct 5GW against European Americans, than to properly solve the issue of ethnicity in America. The American elite also had their sights set on expanding their influence in the world. In order to do this, they had to create an America “which everyone was equal.” America could now say it was “spreading freedom” every time it acted. In order to improve the appearance of the lives of ethnic-minorities, they had to “gut” White America of its schools, communities, tax money, lives, and identities. This has been a slow process starting in the 60’s, but its success can be seen today by asking the average American child who they think the greatest American NON-President ever is? Seventy percent of school children claim MLK to be this person.[1]

I think it was Dan Tdaxp who said something about 5GW being “war in which one group doesn’t even knows its in a war.” I think that concept fits very well with this war.

[1] http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-02-03-most-famous-americans_N.htm

How could Demographic warfare be used with 5GW?
Here’s one way:

The 5GW actor (perhaps a group with-in the state bureaucracy [1]) would create and support policies and institutions that create mechanisms and incentives for the subtle long-term movement of demographically targeted types of people (the Prawns [2] [3]).

The goal of the 5GWers is not the movement of the people for some immediate benefit to the 5GWers (or their cause or their state).

The goal is to shape the outcome of a possible/potential/unknown future conflict by creating for those future decision-making leaders tools and options they would not have otherwise. In a conflict, the decision-making-leaders only have options based on whatever stuff (e.g. tools, capabilities, culture, institutions, willpower) are at their disposal right then (or I suppose in the very near future to them).

This is much different then trying to do 5GW where the 5GWers change the minds of a group of people to take on an identity and pursue goals as the identity groups that also lead to outcomes that the the 5GWers want.

Advantages:

1) Security: Future Enemy can’t counter the 5GWers, their changes have already been made.

2)Secrecy: The 5GWers action, if detected even by historian, will resemble politics or perhaps conspiracy-theory nonsense.

3) Adaptability: The 5GW’s effects could aid the state in ways the 5GWers didn’t think of originally

Disadvantage:

1)Will it hit the target? It is hard to aim or focus this type of 5GW.

2 Will it be ready in time? The long-time lines make precision timing impossible.

[1] TDAXP calls this the “state-within 5GW”
http://www.tdaxp.com/archive/2007/08/01/kinds-of-5gw.html

[2]
http://www.phaticcommunion.com/archives/2008/06/comment_on_tdax.php

[3]
http://www.dreaming5gw.com/2007/09/thinking_and_nonthinking_5gw.php#comment-702

Purpleslog,

I found your post to be interesting, but I can’t say I fully understood it? Perhaps you can write a short fictional futurist story so I can better understand this?

Seerov, OK I will do so. I have been working on another comment to this post on some of the things you wrote in the first comment. That is starting to take shape as a long post (well two different posts).

I will give the fictional scenario some thought - especially if I have a slow day today at work!

Thanks for the link, trying to get back on grid and catch up.

I think the issue of ethnic Russians settling in the near abroad gets more complicated, Seerov is only telling part of the story. The bordering SSRs may have been diluted by transplanting Russians, but the non-Russians inhabiting those regions ended up supporting the Soviet Union, it wasn’t like the Russians moved in and displaced them from power. The very act of creating a federal empire invented administrative centers of power in each SSR that recognized them as being comprised of various ‘nations’, giving those non-Russians who joined the party local political power and influence. While this wasn’t autonomy, it was at the very least cultural recognition of non-Russians with specific pieces of territory, some they never got under the Czars. This is how the Bolsheviks eventually won them over from the Whites, even though Lenin believed that nationalism was false consciousness, which is a bit hypocritical. This might be state-within 5GW, as a war was ongoing, but the non-Russians were convinced that the Bolsheviks were not their enemy (and that the Whites were).

More importantly, the creation of SSRs based on nationality ultimately created the seed by which the Soviet Union would come apart. The discourse of nationalism was legitimated by the Soviet Union, and once the center started to weaken, ethnic elites were already well-versed in the nationalist discourse that was used to fill the gaps in power locally. The same thing happened in Yugoslavia, as each Republic was also based on nationality. These were then the ethnic units by which it was ripped apart.

I really don’t see how this related to the United States. By any definition, we aren’t at war with ourselves, there is no actual commission of violence involved and the state’s authority is simply unquestioned. Who controls it though is up for grabs, but that has nothing to do with war, it is simply pluralist politics.

Seerov,

I think you have a good handle on what I was thinking. In a sense, propaganda that appeals to nationalism, racism, class, or religion is proto-5GW in this way. Once you get a person or group thinking about an issue in a particular context, (I am ‘X’ therefore it is in my best interest to do this. As opposed to, I am ‘Y’ therefore it is in my best interest to act in this other way.) you have the potential to limit the possible number of outcomes to the outcomes in line with your goal, and the target will willingly go where you are leading, without feeling manipulated, because it -is- in their best interest to act in that manner.

Stephen,

Had to give credit where credit was due. Quite a bit of that concept comes from our discussions on that ‘Military Applications of Social Constructivism ’ paper you were writing.

What ever happened to that by the way? Are you going to publish it anytime or did I somehow miss it.

Arherring,

Yes, I need to write one more version, and soon. I’ve also applied to present it at the International Studies Association meeting in NYC in February, so it needs to be done well before that, especially if they accept it. I hope that parts bleed into the blog though, I imagine it might be easier to conceptualize.