Spy Whisperer *

The war for your mind has moved from the outside to inside the mindbody of each and every one of us. In the Age of Intelligence, modern IO is not about the old messages of psychological operations (PSYOPS), but rather about empowering billions of people with both information tools and access to truthful information. It is about education, not manipulation. It is about sharing, not secrecy. It is about human understanding to create wealth and stabilize societies, not about the threat of violence and the delivery of precision munitions. IO substitutes information for violence -- more intelligent intelligence.

Reality is up for grabs. So is the imaginary future, from toxic visions to false techno-utopianism. The blind faith of The American Dream has gone awry. The Crusades are back and so the Cold War, chillier than ever. No old grudges have really gone away. They've just gone underground.

The Age of information is a vision of the convergence of computers, media, and telecommunications. But where do we go from here? Do you live a white-picket fence / big screen TV fantasy in a militarily-defined world with delusions of victory? What comes after the fetishizing of information technology?

Instead of the greater free time for creativity imagined in the Cold War era, people have come to work harder and for longer hours for less net gain. But, Voltaire said that, "Man is free the instant he wants to be."