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Walter Egon's avatar

In an age when the global behemoths are waging hybrid wars, I feel like the fabled Japanese soldier on some forgotten island who had not heard that the war was over.

- Put the chisel down and come out with your hands over your head! The 18th century is over, you can learn to code now! You will have your own cubicle -- I promise.

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David Pinder's avatar

Well said, Walter. Interestingly enough, another of Philip Bobbitt's conclusions from 2002 was that, in the 21st century, wars would be fought but the goal would not necessarily be to win. Rather, the goal would be 'not to lose'.

Now think abut that idea in the context of Russia vs. Ukraine and Israel vs. Hamas. Ooooh!

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Walter Egon's avatar

Digital repression, mandated health programmes, curfews and lockdowns in the homeland and foreverwars on the borderlands ... and if your social credit dips below a certain level you'll be conscripted as drone-bait. The beatings will continue until morale improves, as they say.

There are parts of Norway that are so far-flung, so far from what's left of our civilization, that some of the people who still live there are oblivious to the sinister silliness usurping our societies -- I've worked with some of them! Sometimes I catch myself daydreaming of spending my retirement on some isolated island; Small workshop for pottering, sailing skiff for fishing, vegetable patch ... books, cat ... far from the idiot crowd.

But ... I'd hate it! I know ... "Stadtluft macht frei" as far as I'm concerned. Urban guerrilla warfare it is then. Now where did I hide my flintlock?

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Walter Egon's avatar

*drone-bait*

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David Pinder's avatar

Oh, we do live in a mysterious dimension at right-angles to reality :-)

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David Pinder's avatar

Ooh, I used to like concrete all around. Now, I prefer the countryside - even when, as now, it is a rain-sodden mudbath. :-)

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Walter Egon's avatar

Ahhhh ... but the English countryside is something else ... it's a pleasant and civilized landscape. Most of Norway is brutally primaeval, except for the southern coast.

Concrete? *SNORT!* My good man ... where do you think I live?

https://walteregon.substack.com/p/its-sunday

The only reason I can afford to live here is because I'm the janitor :-)

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David Pinder's avatar

Aah, I had forgotten how lovely your location is. Thanks for the reminder.

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