In the Bronze Age, wars were fought with newly discovered metallurgy: bronze blades weapons, tin, simple metal shields to defend against stabs and projectiles.

In the Iron Age, wars were fought with spears, pikes, shields, trebuchets and even ballista.

In the Industrial Age, wars were fought with mass produced machinery: Firearms, mass-manufactured vehicles, road- and rail-based artillery. Things unimaginable to man’s ancestry.

In the Atomic Age, war was fought with weapons of mass destruction; gone were the scalpels of exclusive blade warfare. For decades, tanks, planes, bombs, rockets, automatic weapons, chemical warfare, and the unimaginable horror of nuclear devices plagued humanity with death, destruction and suffering.

Then came a period of healing. Entire nations realized that sending millions of soldiers, and civilians, to certain death was a backpedaling of the continuity of civilized society. Nations fell; empires surrendered and bowed in humbling disgrace. A new era of evolution came upon us: technology began to accelerate the evolution of the human race.

Medical breakthroughs skyrocketed. The continued development of the automobile, aviation and telecommunications created an interconnected planet. Superpowers thrived and enjoyed the utopias of increased food production, import and export. Property values soared. Proxy wars came and went, their apparent necessity doubted and rejected. Small disputes between outlying nations bore the brunt of human warfare while the rest of the world basked in their supermarkets, car dealerships and realty agencies. America was at its prime in the previous century. (Looking at you, Boomers. Nothing but love, but nobody had it as good as you did.)

You are now here. We have arrived at the Dawn of the Information Age. Supercomputers equipped with global positioning, photography, worldwide internet connectivity and unparalleled processing power merely fit in our pockets. Technology is being used to harness and unlock the secrets of the universe, with the birth of nuclear fusion energy just around the corner. Folks enjoy instant communication with their friends and family on social media platforms, gaming services, and personal computers that each could have singlehandedly run the entire country’s infrastructure just fifty years prior.

The technology curve is so steep that many citizens not only can’t keep up with the progression, but the monetary demand to escape obsolescence. Folks with flip phones are ridiculed by those with smart phones. Folks with cathode-ray televisions are viewed as fringe cooks and dinosaurs. Tech is evolving at breakneck speed and the world is blasting through bottlenecks faster than previously thought imaginable.

That brings us here. The year of Information Warfare. Media conglomerates conspire to shame, ostracize and attack dissenters. Social platforms ban the speech that goes against their beliefs, while turning the cheek to violent rhetoric and senseless physical attacks on people and property against their opponents. Countries bent on achieving global supremacy steal blueprints, code, sensitive proprietary data and even military projects from their competitors. Entire nations and nation-states fight to suppress the free flow of information and open dialogue. Gone are the days of gunfire, mass destruction and direct military action. This new warfare is evolving day by day, and the past ten years have seen an insane spike in the use of information warfare as a tactical, strategic method of a means to an end. Truth doesn’t matter, facts are irrelevant, and propaganda wins wars.

You are here, this is now. We have mere days before a paradigm shift. I truly believe that the USA will prevail against the evils of the world. Take that how you want it, and just remember who controls the troops occupying the nation’s capitol RIGHT THIS SECOND, who has command authority, who holds the nuclear football, and who stands to face the sword of justice. Don’t lose hope, because the next few days will decide the future of the world.