From Castles to Cannons: 2012

I wrote "from castles to Cannons:2010" which then was a thoughtful update of a poetic prose I wrote directly in the aftermath of "9-11" of how planes were wonderful things until they were used as missiles used and flown with passengers into major buildings and thousands died then that day. And it reminded me of how safe people in Europe used to feel in their Castles, that is until Cannons were invented that could blow down and knock down the walls of castles. Likewise today, Globalization and the complete lack of privacy ongoing takes us to "1984" when nothing is secret or private again. At this point things are even being invented to read people's thoughts so what they think won't even be secret or private anymore. So, we live in very scary times and I wonder how mankind will find a way through this present morass we  find ourselves in worldwide. Because no government can ever be completely trusted and no government ever will be completely trusted.

I believe the "Occupy" movement and Arab Spring are two of the reactions of the common people to zero privacy. Because one of the side effects of zero privacy is zero jobs. So, the lack of privacy ultimately feeds into a type of extermination of the poor and uneducated worldwide through starvation because of no way to make money. Though some might call this efficiency I just call it murder of the masses.

 

From Castles to Cannons: 2010

I wrote an article shortly after 9-11 that had the same title. It talked about how a sea change had happened then. That by flying planes into buildings like that a type of innocence and trust had been lost among mankind. It could be likened to when cannons were first used on castles and knights wearing armor and when pistols and rifles penetrated armor worn by knights. Everything changed overnight.

Today here in 2010 Globalization is doing the same thing to the nation state. Though some nations like China and India are better positioned by lower labor costs to take advantage of it, they likely will be in for even a worse psychological wrench than the U.S. and Europe and Japan as they watch the havoc that globalization will wrought on their nations. Though the U.S., Europe and Japan and other industrialized nations will suffer in one way, still they have infrastructure that hasn't yet been developed by China and India and other fast developing nations to the same degree.

So all nations should consider the "Castles to Cannons" adage because we are all there. We may all experience globalization differently. But Nothing will ever be the same again just like when cannons were invented and no castle could ever be a useful defense ever again.