The Art of Electronic War

Here in America, we are all involved in electronic warfare. There is no way around it.

I realize that I have just made a completely false statement in terms, but let's look at some definitions and ideologies-

By definition, war is a dispute played out by a series of military campaigns over issues such as territory, sovereignety, resources, and a host of other subjects. Today, the ideology of war seems to have redefined it's purpose. It has become the act of an aggressor attempting to prosecute, attack and subjugate a supposed threat to the world economy, militarily superior nations or, seemingly, the dominant way of life within the wealthier societies. In fact, it's always been this way. Nuts to definition.

With the incorporation of war into the world-economic market, corporations have learned how to carry out their own subtle wars. The difference is that corporations not only subjugate and control the markets of other countries by means that, to call a spade a spade, are hostile, but they also aggresively pursue the domination of the consumer population. Meaning us.

Marketing and advertising are nothing new. Billboards, magazine and TV ads, even dressing people up like gorillas in T-Shirts are tried and true tactics of companies at all financial levels. But today you cannot escape ad campaigns, no matter where in the world you are. Even in a small mountain town with a population of 40 people, you will be bombarded by telemarketers, cold-callers, survey takers and most recently automated sales pitches. Logging on to the web means accepting an assault of flashy banner ads, pop-ups and if you're a poor misinformed soul, adware.

We now live in an environment where, if we do not protect ourselves appropriately, we are subjected to more and more aggressive advertising.

Countermeasures have been developed. Your local phone service can set up an outgoing message that warns solicitors to hang up - for an extra fee. Or you could go the caller ID route, which again is an extra service and requires purchase of the necessary device. There is a galaxy of anti-virus, anti-adware, scanners, pop-up blockers, firewalls, what have you available for your internet needs. The down side is that if you are not willing to constantly re-educate yourself and update whatever software you are using, you will be left in obsolescence at the mercy of the electronic data-compiling wolves.

Take all this into account and think about your position as a consumer in society, which is moreover the role we are all forced into at birth until some bright day in the future when the human race reaches a new stage of enlightenment. Your privacy is now under occupation and your resources are now being claimed by invaders of your personal information. In a sense, we have all been reduced to a form of second hand citizenry. Like the Palestinians are the targets of a military occupation, we are the targets of a marketing one. There is no one alive that could convince me that Total Commerce is dedicated to improving our quality of life. In fact, they are robbing us of it, using their brand of electronic warfare to entice us with giant vehicles to pollute the air and McFood that puts third world farmers on a death sentence.

Advertising in and of itself is not evil. Everyone does it to a degree, and they should. We don't live in a society where the town barker yells "hear ye, hear ye" to let us know that the Theatre Troupe is performing at the Square tonight. Advertising is just effective communication and you should have the option to heed it or ignore it.

But when I read statistics that say 98% of telemarketing calls are made between the hours of five and seven o'clock, I get a little irritated for all those families who are trying to just chill out and spend some time together at the end of the day. When I see networks airing Army recruitment ads that are without a doubt designed to target urban minority youth and suburban gamer geeks, I feel that the boundaries of civility are being compromised.

And when I get a fucking cookie from a website that is transmitting my personal data to a hundred other marketting research firms, I load my virtual AK-47 and get ready to take it to the front lines.

It's only going to get worse. I was told by a money-hungry retail manager with the personality of a Basilisk that he would gladly pay a foreign employee a crappy wage to make 100 cold calls a day. He went on to explain that if just one of those calls made a sale and this happened daily, there would be profit made. So no matter how many people he annoyed, invaded, exploited and ripped off, it was worth it to make a buck. Maybe I'm too sensitive for my own good, but I find this dispicable.

The best thing an individual can do at this point is to, dare I say it, take a lesson from urban guerillas and insurgencies all around the world. Fight fire with fire. It's easy and thankfully, it's still legal. For starters, learn what you can do to arm yourself against corporate-to-consumer cyber missiles. Microsoft requires the user to download a never ending series of upgrades and service packs to keep most of it's software current and operational. This means more data gathering, more marketting and worst of all, a state of dependancy, much like the effect of colonialism in the real world. Unlike the real world, at this point anyway, there are always alternatives. Hundreds of software developers are on the crusade to a more open, free system in the future and they are designing top-notch software and applications to divert the consumer base caught in MS's clutches. Open source programming is a fairly new concept and is quickly rising in popularity. The idea is that users themselves contribute to the development of the product they are using. A good example would be the Linux operating system, although I admit it's a long way off before it becomes comprehensive.

The down side is you don't have tech support a phone call away. The up side is everything is shared freely, without legal repercussion, and there are hundreds of users providing invaluable information on whatever may perplex you. In a sense, it's kind of like online socialism.

This brings me to the last point I want to make about modern corporate electronic war - how much longer will freedom be free on the net? There seem to be two distinct schools of user out there; those who work for the software giants, and the rest of us.

Internet freedoms are under siege at this very minute. The Federal Election Commision is currently involved in preliminary hearings the NPRM regarding the rights of free politics online. In the offline world, political opinions are largely only received by the public coming from those who have "big money" behind their campaigns. There are regulatory minimums purposefully put into place for campaign funding that keep many fringe and special interest parties from being aloud to stage conventions and demonstrations.

This is not so online, but the NPRM wants to make sure that in the future, anyone giving their party their due by means of blogging, posting on forums or mass emailing has to go through the same flaming hoops. The requirement of disclaimers and the control placed on political activists could stand to alienate millions of voices, or silence them for good.

Online journalists and opinion writers are also coming under fire. The Center for Democracy and Technology has reported that the FCC and RIAA are butting heads over whether published content should be subjected to editorial authorities or not. That would put guys like me who have no background or professional journalism experience in a position where we cannot freely distribute our writing on the web.

Maybe that makes you happy.

The point of all this is that as a vigilant citizen, it is your responsiblity to stay sharp and not allow yourself to become too much of a victim of electronic seige tactics. Despite how many there are out there, many small cells are working in our favor and want to keep technology beneficial for humankind. We don't want to give it up to corporate or politicorporate interests as an elite tool for them to use in our subjugation.

Feed your head, keep that chin up...

and keep watching the skies!

D-L. C.
chitown 05