“It is entirely possible that the true and authentic reality is being drowned out by countless superficial information bits noisily and breathlessly presented in propaganda fashion. Consequently, one may be entirely knowledgeable about a thousand details and nevertheless, because of ignorance regarding the core of the matter, remain without basic insight … Arnold Gehlen labeled it “a fundamental ignorance, created by technology and nourished by information . . . … the place of authentic reality is taken over by fictitious reality; my perception is indeed still directed toward an object, but now it is pseudoreality, deceptively appearing as being real, so much so that it becomes almost impossible any more to discern the truth.” (Josef Pieper – Abuse of Language, Abuse of Power,” 1974)
“Whether it be the intrusion of hackers, a major explosion at the World Trade Center, of a bombing attack by bin Laden, all of these greatly exceed the frequency bandwidths understood by the American military . . . This is because they have never taken into consideration and have even refused to consider means that are contrary to tradition and to select measures of operation other than military means.” (Col Qiao Liang, Col Wang Xiangsui, Unrestricted Warfare, 1999)
Josef Pieper’s quote (above) has been used to suggest that intense concentration on data bits in support of models can degrade discernment over the “core of the matter” to the point where reality dislocation occurs. Has the dominance of the social sciences in the conduct of the counter-terror effort since 9/11 pushed that effort into Pieper calls pseudoreality (or the Matrix’s identities as the Blue Pill universe)? A few questions to consider when answering:
Did we win or lose in Afghanistan?
Did terrorism succeed in reducing American power and prestige along lines forecast by the Islamic Movement?
Has America’s response been reduced to incoherence because of it?
When answering the question, please account for the observations of the two Chinese colonels from Unrestricted Warfare, as posted above.
