Authors: Andrei Ilnitsky, Alexander Losev – 03/09/2023
Induced world degradation
Global threats to humanity – the Russian perspective
Introduction
Clausewitz, with his principle of “war as a continuation of politics,” is no longer relevant. Orwell is relevant: WAR IS PEACE. War is the global political platform of the West, striving for hegemony over the world. Its hegemony must be secured with all resources. And if necessary, through violence. The violence of the hegemon is global and totalitarian. It covers all human spheres – from the state and public to the private and mental spheres.
Violence becomes a basic technology and an everyday norm, it is overgrown with semantic props, institutionalized, conceptually fixed.
In October 2022, the United States adopted a new “National Security Strategy”, where, in fact, it declared itself a “global” hegemon – a state whose sphere of interests is the whole world.
The customers and beneficiaries of this strategy are the globalist elites that control transnational corporations, a significant part of the world’s finances, the high-tech industry, the intelligence community and influential media. Sometimes these elite groups are called the “deep state” – deep state, but the state, that is, the sovereign political form of society, is exactly what the globalist elites want to destroy.
The complete interpenetration and dominance of structures controlled by Western elites in the military-industrial complex, intelligence and defense communities, along with the creation of a network of “think tanks” (think tanks) that form strategy and meanings, ensured control over the foreign and domestic policies of the United States and the West in in general.
Nation states are an obstacle on the way of globalist elites to world hegemony. Therefore, the subjectivity of states is destroyed, the agenda is desovereigned, and the infrastructure and national political institutions are purposefully degraded.
The primary task of the globalist elites is the destruction of Russia and the subjugation of China, without which it is impossible to achieve world domination. This task is solved through submission and violence, in which the military component is only an extreme measure.
In a recent interview, Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces, outlined three new operational and technological priorities that define the nature of war in the 21st century – a war where the US and NATO intend to ensure their global dominance in the coming decades:
artificial intelligence and quantum calculus, combined with robotics, are the tools of war in the 21st century;
the battlefield of the war of the XXI century from now on – megacities. Special technologies and equipment are being developed, personnel are being structured and trained specifically for war in urban areas with a high population density, overloaded with many socio-technogenic stress points and infrastructure vulnerabilities. This battlefield is seen as a priority and highly effective damaging effect on the infrastructure and people of the target state;
the war of the 21st century is a war for minds. The US and NATO military have set the task of transitioning from informational to cognitive-mental dominance as a determining factor in the final strategic victory over the enemy.
Objectively, Russia and its security system for each of the three “priorities of General Milli” are under attack and at risk, since the work on the formation of a security system as a basic platform and a common denominator of the country’s development is at the stage of deployment and formation. A lot is being done, but, alas, sometimes according to our long-standing tradition – “some in the forest, some for firewood”, aggravated by interdepartmental barriers and the commercial interests of some of the actors involved, which are sometimes far from national security priorities.
As a result, there are risks of getting not development, but new vulnerabilities and degradation of the socio-economic and defense structure of the state. Moreover, the opponents and enemies of Russia are purposefully working to induce this degradation from the outside and from the inside.
Artificial intelligence – a development factor and a threat
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a disruptive dual-use technology. And the military component of AI technologies is evolving very quickly. AI is considered to be the third revolutionary innovation in military affairs after the invention of gunpowder and nuclear weapons.
Like any dual-use technology (recall the consequences of the discovery of radioactivity), AI carries not only colossal opportunities, but also global threats.
The widest opportunities for AI are, among other things, poorly predicted, but very obvious risks. Artificial intelligence, like quantum computing, which can break almost any security code, is not only a breakthrough development horizon, but also a tool to seize control over the economy, critical infrastructure and the entire state.
Robots and automated systems, cyber weapons and cyber espionage, digital destruction of true knowledge and its replacement with fake information according to the Orwellian methodology are problems of a civilizational scale in the humanitarian sphere and in the field of “decision making”, this is a wide field for manipulating public consciousness and interfering in people’s private lives. , which means that it is potentially an instrument of violence.
It is important to understand that AI, included in the decision-making system as an element of public administration technology, can lead to both strengthening the structures of the state and unbalancing them. The threat lurks already in the complexity of the AI subject itself and in the emergence of these technologies against the background of the degradation of engineering and technical literacy and management competencies, which, due to, as a rule, humanitarian education, is simply not able to understand the meanings and internal mechanisms of this technology, perceiving it as a kind of ” black box”. At the same time, the manager must make decisions, because de jure this is the area of his responsibility. The term ” AI ” has become so commonplace that it becomes not a noun, but an adjective, as the adjective “nano” once became, now perceived by public opinion as a symbol of the imitation of innovation activity by systemic liberals at the expense of the state.
Degrading competencies and objective professional unsuitability for the implementation of systems with AI elements is a global management threat. Who will make the decisions: a responsible person or an irresponsible machine – that is the question.
No matter how strong AI is, the final decision should remain with the person. But that’s in theory. But in practice, there is a danger that when making decisions, the recommendations of technical specialists responsible for the development and operation of AI in specific state security, civil, and business structures will not be properly verified by elites – those who make decisions – due to their lack of relevant knowledge, education and competencies… Therefore, decisions can be made “on faith” – faith in the very “black box” of AI.
The degradation of national elites as a purposeful policy of the globalist community became a global trend several decades ago. This process affected the elites and the administrative apparatus of all states, including the US and the EU. The regression of public elites helps the globalists to solve their problems. The mechanism of formation of elites is changing and rebooting. In the United States, this process was triggered by the launch of a project called the Minority Revolution.
Why minorities? There is nothing surprising in this: the technology of managing/manipulating society on the principle of “divide and conquer” – that is, to rule by breaking society into sects, strata, etc. minorities, purposefully working with each of them – is as old as the world.
Minorities that are not able to consolidate into the majority – active, but financially and professionally not self-sufficient, and therefore manipulated – are a completely working and reliable technology for reformatting power to seize control of the country.
In addition, minorities – carriers of norms that undermine moral principles, traditional and religious values - have acquired a new functionality, becoming one of the key social mechanisms for making a profit. Our great Dostoevsky wrote exactly about this: “If there is no God, everything is allowed.”
Thus, for example, the dominance of non-traditional minorities and the like of transgender people in political life creates an impressive market for pharmaceutical corporations and serves the purpose of population reduction. New digital technologies and social platforms have helped prepare developed countries for change by reducing the capacity of their societies to resist the disruptive transformation of the socio-economic sphere.
The purposeful policy of tolerance and repentance to minorities for the colonial sins of the past, which destroys the national self-consciousness and human dignity of the majority of Western citizens, served the same goals in the formation of apathy in societies. And also – the legalization of soft drugs, the decline in the quality of education, social apartheid and the creation of super-control. The globalist elites are building a dystopian civilization according to Orwell and Huxley, where colossal inequality and controlled distribution of limited benefits to a disenfranchised population will remain.
Growing reliance on digital systems is undermining cognition, making it more difficult for people to maintain attention, retain information, and think critically. The degradation of Western elites and societies, as well as a noticeable decrease in the professional standards of post-industrial economies, are stages on the way to building a global dystopia.
So, very systematically and consistently, in the United States and Western countries, the process of transforming the economy and society is taking place through the “natural” replacement of traditional state institutions, elites and values with new principles and rules. “Inclusive capitalism” and “rules-based world order” are promoted instead of the development of human civilization and international law.
Actually, this also allows us to define today’s confrontation between the West, on the one hand, and the rest of the world, the centers of which at the moment are Russia and China, on the other, precisely as a civilizational confrontation
The risks of mental and professional degradation of the elites are exacerbated by the fact that today – according to the “war priorities of General Milli” – technologies are being intensively developed using AI to influence the psycho-physiological sphere of a person in order to influence the minds, emotions and moods of individuals and social groups.
The technological and social resources of influence here are enormous.
AI is already capable of creating “fake news”, forming an artificial reality online, hacking social media accounts and distributing special information there in order to influence the minds of citizens, “encourage” elites/politicians to make decisions “necessary” for infocognitive attack customers, producing in as a result, the risks of real conflicts between countries.
We must anticipate the consequences of the application of new AI technologies both in the field of “decision making” and in the economy, information, socio-cultural space and “on the battlefield” (mental warfare in particular).
The problem is also that in the near future in the West people who grew up on computer games and trust AI will come to different levels of decision-making. Here, a joke of the American military, invented at the Nellis Air Force Base (USA), is in place: “In the future, the Air Force will consist of one person, a dog and a computer. The task of the person will be to feed the dog, and the task of the dog will be to prevent the person from touching the computer.” The risks from this are very serious.
Game of degradation
According to the analytical company DFC Intelligence, as of the beginning of 2023, the total audience of computer video games was 3.7 billion people, which is 46% of the total population of the Earth. Computer games as a product of mass culture involve representatives of almost all social groups, people of different incomes and different political views in their sphere of influence.
And there are many mental problems, risks and vulnerabilities. Many computer games instill violence, make it familiar and everyday. In the malicious hands of the game – a tool for the degradation and destruction of the individual.
Cruelty, violence, non-traditional sexual relations, antisocial behavior, implicit propaganda of terrorism and extremism, social humiliation (abusing) and illegal activities are the content platform of many of these games.
Result: – blurred value system; – infantilism; -loss of connection with the real world; -induced inability to distinguish good from evil; -personality degradation.
Young people are primarily affected by video games. The upper bar is difficult to determine, since computer game fans are also found among people of mature age. According to InfoWatch and Cribrium, the Russian domestic gaming market has grown significantly in recent years.
The proportion of those who use the Internet for games in 2023 has reached 60% of the active population (Datareportal data, January 2023). In 2020, this figure was almost two times lower – 33%. In the gaming environment, Russian was one of the three most popular languages in the world, only English and Chinese are higher in the ranking. There are 88 million people in Russia who regularly play video games. For a year, Russians spend from 100 to 160 billion rubles on this.
Each of us is a cognitive person with his own way of knowing the world. In a sense, we are a set of habits of thinking, seeing, hearing, remembering, etc. Video games have a strong influence on the worldview – on how users (including children) perceive the world, themselves and others.
Video game characters shape players’ perceptions of family values. A significant number of foreign-made games (primarily the US and Japan) have recently begun to include gay characters.
For example, The Sims games are recognized as the most friendly and open gaming franchise to LGBT content. Due to the fact that the above life simulators allow the practice of free preferences and relationships, a significant proportion of the “simmer” community is formed by users who identify themselves as LGBT subculture.
There is a need for state regulation / control of content and labeling of games, punishment for violation of established rules for game producers and platforms.
We need a comprehensive, interdisciplinary analysis of online gaming communities with the involvement of security officials, expert psychologists, sociologists, political scientists, and IT specialists.
We need our own gaming content and a system for promoting a positive image of Russia through the global gaming community.
It must be understood that these are not toys, but serious risks of youth degradation and problems with their national identity in the future. This is a mental war for the minds of the younger generation.
Infrastructure degradation
The degradation of the energy sector, the “green” transformation, the closure of nuclear power plants, which predetermined an unprecedented energy crisis and the withdrawal of production from developed countries. The world economy, having exhausted the possibilities of extensive growth, is gradually plunging into the chaos of trade and sanctions wars, bloody regional conflicts, is faced with widespread breaks in global chains and the division of the once unified geo-economy into separate regional zones and political blocs.
Separately, we will mention the degradation of an industry so significant for the progress as space. The problems here are global and systemic in nature. Our Soyuz manned spacecraft until 2020 was practically the only means of delivering crews to the ISS, since since 2011 the Americans stopped launching the Space Shuttle and transferred their astronauts to Russian ships. The reason is simple: in 30 years of using the shuttles, the Americans had only two accidents, but 14 astronauts died in them at once. And we have not had human casualties since 1971. Under these conditions, the Pentagon and NASA have relied on Elon Musk, who, in fact, is funded and works for the US government. The provision by the West of the nationalist regime in control of Ukraine of StarLink communications satellites is only a small part of what what does the head of SpaceX do under the leadership of the military in the interests of the American state. To exercise global control, the United States has a wide range of satellites and space systems, often in dual modification – civil and military, which to a large extent prevented the decline of the Western space industry.
The reasons for the current situation in our space industry are clear. Funding dropped sharply in the 1990s. Sectoral management has practically disappeared. There was a massive outflow of qualified personnel. But the “point of no return” has not been passed. After the Patriotic War in a devastated country, thanks to the selfless work of the most talented chief designers, as well as, let’s not forget about it, huge teams and leadership in the person of party, military and civil government employees, a completely new rocket and space industry was created in just 10 years. In today’s realities, this phenomenon is difficult to understand, but necessary, since it really was and clearly shows that with the right goal setting, the presence of state will and the strategic scale of tasks, with the right selection of personalities and their focus on results, “miracles of progress” are provided in a planned manner. The experience of the same NASA shows that the greatest successes were achieved only with the active participation of the state – the Pentagon first of all – in the development of space projects, no matter how they are ” sticked out” the role of private initiative. And for Russia, the dominance and will of the state in the development of outer space is a basic and necessary condition for success.
The 20th century was called the great era of the scientific and technological revolution, when, on the basis of scientific knowledge and discoveries of mankind, there was a rapid progress in technology and technology, the development of industry and productive forces proceeded at an incredible pace, social and political relations changed, and the level and quality of life of people increased.
In the 21st century, progress in many areas of science and technology has been replaced by regression, because in the post-industrial world, scientific knowledge has ceased to be factors of production in most countries. In many economic spheres, capital is no longer created, but only redistributed, so the main source of new capital is the printing presses of central banks, which support expansive lending, endless consumption and inflation of the post-industrial economy.
The degradation of science, culture and public life, combined with new digital technologies and social platforms, is helping to prepare developed countries for the transition to the world of Orwellian dystopia, reducing the potential of societies, including Western ones, to counter the destructive transformation of the entire socio-economic sphere. Although, as biophysicists joke, degradation is a reverse development.
Degradation of geo-territorial strategy
But let’s get back to General Milli’s “military priorities” – his war in metropolitan areas.
The war in the city is an extremely promising direction in terms of the effectiveness of the destruction of the population and the socio-economic infrastructure of the country. The risks here are varied and escalating.
Until recently, the megalopolis concepts of the territorial development of Russia, when the country’s population and economy are “concentrated in a dozen and a half megacities of modern multi-storey and dense buildings”, may be beneficial to realtors, but not to Russian society, which in this way simply “starts up in the crosshairs of the sight » General Milli. The lessons of the corona crisis have clearly demonstrated the vulnerability of such a concept. In addition, it contradicts not only the issues of balancing the development of Russian territories, but also national security, and the very cultural code of Russian civilization, historically and culturally formed precisely in our gigantic expanses, where we are “not crowded” and amicably, “without pushing our elbows” , in harmony we live so different.
The megacity concept is risks and a path to the decline of Russian civilization and the “disintegration” of the socio-economic infrastructure of our gigantic country.
The threats of the policy of concentration of the population in cities are also noted by our opponents. The leading Western think-tank – The Center for Strategic and International Studies (СSIS), specializing in military topics and security issues, in a report released in August 2023, describes the infrastructure risks and vulnerabilities of possible conflicts, not even in a direct armed conflict, but during cyber attacks.
The most probable targets are divided into three categories: the first is electric power facilities. The second is pipelines and railways. The third will be a logistics and communications network. The main targets will be telecommunications systems in cities and regions.
Electrical networks have always been considered valuable objects, and the potential vulnerability of electrical networks is well known.
All digital objects are vulnerable to some degree. Pipelines, for example, stretch thousands of miles across several states and traverse sparsely populated areas. They are digitally controlled, with many possible points of both cyber and physical disruption.
The attack on the American Colonial Pipeline showed that a short-term disruption can bring political gain and quickly radicalize the situation in the country.
Likely targets are civilian air traffic control systems, as well as water supplies in key urban areas, as telecommunications and electricity depend on it.
This is how our opponents from CSIS see it – and this is not a complete list of risks only from cyber attacks. Add terrorism, man-made factors and the risks of epidemics to this – and it will not seem enough even without a military component.
We need to understand that the metropolitan concepts of Russia’s geo-social development introduced from the outside are significant risks and potential degradation of the national security system.
A case was opened against a migrant who hit a girl in Nakhabino
Dream degradation
The American-style world, where the dollar is the main product produced by the United States for export, where external expansion is the main factor in development, this world has “hit the limits of growth.”
When growth ends, so does meaning.
Why then do we need this “democracy as a value in itself”, more and more countries and people are wondering. Americans themselves are asking this question.
“We do not have an answer to the fundamental question that more and more of our fellow citizens are asking. Where is our country going, what is its place in the future world? What is the purpose? How will we get there? What guiding stars will guide us?
Our falling roads and bridges reflect our falling self-confidence. Our educational reformers often seem to despair that we will ever be able to effectively educate new generations for the economy of the 21st century. Our health care system is increasingly lagging behind other developed countries” – an excerpt from the foundational work of the 2011 Mr. Y National Strategic Narrative. Labor, which largely determined the ideology of Trump’s concept in 2016.
Progress as a process inherent in the past liberal economic model has ended. Most of the adults in the “golden billion” already believe that their children will have it worse than their parents: for example, 50% of the population in Australia and up to 90% in France think so.
Tomorrow for the Westerner is no longer a world of dreams, but rather a world of uncertainty, a world of growing anxieties, conflicts and injustice.
A prominent philosopher and sociologist of our time, Sigmund Bauman, wrote back in 2017: “The Western man’s dream of a “better life” terminated his marriage made in heaven with the future. And in the process of divorce, the dream was vilely robbed, depriving it of any ethical significance.
And if the “Temple on the Hill” does not have “ethical significance” as an inspiring dream, then there is no mission “to the city and the world.” There is a sharp weakening of the attractiveness of US policy and Western civilization as a whole. That is, sincerely and “out of love” with the world they have no way, but “for love for money” – the funds have run out. The United States no longer has enough resources to dominate through “buying loyalty” and military power. And our pro-Western liberals didn’t succeed much, and things didn’t go beyond pumping “well fluid” into green papers, since the goal was full integration into the global economy as a source of resources.
The global elites have done their job, the US as a state is also entering a period of decline.
So, the crisis of the West is an existential crisis, it is the degradation of the liberal dream.
The coming era of the destruction of this liberal economic model means that Russia gets a chance to regain the status of a special civilization.
Degradation counter strategy
Degradation is a powerful tool of the Western elites’ mental war against Russia. The nature of global transformations is such that it is simply pointless to act reflexively, trying to respond to a crisis. The main task is the formation of its own Russian ideology and strategy to counter the total degradation of the world induced by Western globalists. If we realize this, then we can oppose anti-intellectualism with enlightenment and the spiritual and moral development of our society.
Enlightenment is the dissemination of knowledge and culture. The importance of education in times when states are threatened by external forces cannot be overestimated.
Education is a purposeful process of education and training. Education in no way should be a service, it is a socially significant good. Education is closely related to culture, because in the course of education and upbringing, cultural images and moral principles are transmitted to the younger generations.
In the strategic formulation, the sought-for solution is based on the best fundamental education in the world accessible to all Russians.
Improving the quality of the school, the status of higher and secondary education, mobilizing it for the task of a technological breakthrough, educating creative nationally oriented youth is the key to the future.
Unfortunately, over the past 20-25 years, fundamental natural science disciplines have been systematically emasculated from the education system. As a result, only 20% of high school graduates pass the USE in physics. Chemistry is even less. That is, young people can graduate from school, but never master the basics of these fundamental sciences. The school prepares not creators, but “literate consumers”. But it is the fundamental sciences, along with literature, that teach a child to think and formulate his thoughts. Alas, the quality of engineering and technical education has declined sharply.
For decades, the attitude towards techies as non-prestigious professions has been cultivated – against the backdrop of the dominance of managers, lawyers, economists and others, so is it any wonder that when techies are needed in large numbers, the previous inertia of attitude towards these professions continues to persist, and the state has yet to fully reverse this trend as priorities have changed. The problem is more than serious, and for the development of industry we need many times more technical specialists and skilled workers.
The shortage of engineering and technical specialists in Russia is getting stronger every year, the question is how to stimulate young people to enroll in these professions that are in demand by employers. If today we do not begin to intensively train and educate personnel who are nationally oriented and competent in the use of AI, we will simply fail with all our plans.
The task of educating the engineering and intellectual potential of Russia should become a state priority, because without this it will be impossible to ensure the defense capability and security of the state, the preservation of sovereignty and the very future of our civilization. It is necessary to form a “Great Triad” – fundamental science, applied science, training. Professional development must be combined with spiritual and moral development and creativity.
The main driver of science will be the military-industrial complex. It is the defense industry, which in our country is financed by the state on a priority basis, that can become the main customer for research in the natural sciences, and in the field of artificial intelligence, and in geo-territorial strategy. With such a “conductor”, Russian science has prospects for obtaining new knowledge, and Russia has visible prospects for victory.
The mobilization of our economy for the needs of victory on the fields of the Northern Military District, where the battle of the civilizational war between Russia and the West is going on, contributes to the solution of these problems, breaking the degradation trend induced by the globalists. “Devastation does not begin in the closets, but in the heads …” – here Bulgakov’s professor Preobrazhensky was absolutely right.
It is important to understand that we must first defeat the West mentally – for this victory we need a powerful ideology that gathers the people’s will and answers the questions: “What are we?”, “Who are we?” and “Why us?”.
Ideology is not a “product of the mind” of political scientists, not a construct introduced from outside. This is a lived history, accumulated wisdom and a conscious meaning of the people’s existence.
The Russian ideology should permeate everything – from the ruling elites to the depths of society, inducing everyone to action in solidarity.
Now all of us – each, society, state – will have to test for the right to be called civilization. And we cannot fail this exam of history. The ability for self-sacrifice, indestructible faith in ourselves, in truth and justice, the vast expanse of Russia, the energy of the country and the power of the state form a single whole. The destruction of this whole and our ethical system was and remains the goal of the enemy. And this cannot be allowed.
The thesis that dominated for many years that technocratic intellectuals should be in charge of the country is inaccurate, and in the current conditions of civilizational confrontation with the West is harmful. Russia needs professionals with a clear value profile of serving the Fatherland.
The military and security officials, deputies and officials, heads of state corporations, diplomats, figures in the media and educational and cultural spheres must internally mobilize and clearly determine their place in the ranks of the front of the civilizational war with the West.
NOTE: The article contains a purely personal point of view of the authors!
Andrei Ilnitsky, Acting State Counselor 3rd class, member of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy
Alexander Losev, Member of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy
Подробнее в ПГ: https://www.pnp.ru/politics/inducirovannaya-degradaciya-mira.html