Alignment

Networked tribes waging war over alignment and the victor wins the future. Let's explore what this means.

Networked tribes are at war with traditional organizations and each other for control of the future. Victory in this network war is won through alignment (see the report “Gleichschaltung” for more). Here are a few recent alignment milestones in this war:

• Corporate alignment: Bud Light and the destruction of a major US brand (see “A Corporate Run World” for more).

• Government alignment: The White House Pride Flag

• Non-governmental Institution alignment: Replacing the Hippocratic Oath and the ongoing fight over alignment in Florida public schools.

To understand what is happening and why alignment is critical, let’s dive into an interesting idea from fourth-generation warfare theory called primary loyalties.

Primary Loyalties

A primary loyalty is;

• Loyalty to the new group > Loyalty to the nation-state (i.e., what is good for the group > what is good for the nation).

• Loyalty to the nation-state is diminished (i.e., ‘the state, based on historical crimes or corrupted electoral outcomes, is illegitimate’) or redefined (i.e., ‘I support the nation’ → ‘I support democracy’).

• Loyalty to the new group is competitive with the nation-state (i.e., ‘Who will you take to the streets to defend?’)

Competitive Groups

The growing popularity of new primary loyalties strongly indicates a future civil collapse (war/breakup) or revolutionary takeover. Signs that these competitive groups are maturing as threats include the following (doubly so if coercion is used to develop and deploy them):

• New identities (i.e., the answer to ‘Who are you?’) and ideological systems.

• New oaths/expressions of loyalty (i.e., ‘You must demonstrate your loyalty’)

• New flags/symbols (i.e., ‘Whose flag do you fly?’)

Networked Loyalty

The new twist on this concept is the emergence of networked tribes. With networked tribes, the threat is both largely invisible (most people won’t recognize it is happening) and far more aggressive;

• Quickly mobilize a new primary loyalty to a national/global scale or take action.

• Fight asymmetrically (the target has no natural defenses against attacks)

• Take over status quo competitors (governments, corporations, etc.) by forcing them into alignment and block competitive networked tribes from doing the same.

Now, let’s dig into how networked tribes coerce alignment.