The Great Devaluation

[Kinser79]

(03-13-2017, 12:56 PM)pbrower2a Wrote:

(03-12-2017, 11:00 PM)Galen Wrote:

(03-12-2017, 05:42 PM)Kinser79 Wrote:

(03-12-2017, 03:23 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: 500 years ago? That's about the time of the Thirty Years War, one of the most dehumanizing wars of all time.

Uh...you're off by a century.  The Thirty Years War was between 1618 and 1648.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Years%27_War

500 years ago the Reformation started.  Probably why some boomers insist that we can't possibly be in a Mega-Unraveling because apparently this 500 years pattern is supposed to be a hard fast rule or something.  (Saeculum B probably throws off his astrological calculations or some such nonsense.)

I mark it from the time effective,about 1500, firearms and cannon started reducing castles and other fortifications to rubble because that is when the logic of violence changed.  The political institutions of any society will reflect the logic of violence since those who can wield force can not simply be ignored.

OK. The main events of about 500 years ago were the Spanish conquests of the Aztec and Inca empires... until you reminded me of how firearms and cannons started making rubble out of fortifications. Castles became impractical as defenses. That of course changed the way people did war and what political entities were possible.

So what changes in warfare? Do enemies win because they are able to jam the weapons of the other side?  Or because they are able to break radio communications? It is telling that the Armed Forces of the USA are putting much effort into cyber-security. I can imagine an army retreating or  surrendering because a fake video by a leading general tells troops to do so. Control of communications will be essential to military command.

Only if you want an Americas centric approach.  Myself I'm primarily Western Civilization oriented which means that until at least the last half of the 19th century the Americas are a backwater.  For much of that time period where resources came from and where surplus population was shipped off to.

As such I'd maintain that the main events of 500 years ago were not the conquests of Peru, and New Spain (Mexico) but rather the Reformation and Counter Reformation.

However this doesn't take into account the fact that the upcoming saeculum will not be a Mega-Awakening like the Reformation Saeculum was.

I would liken cyber technology most akin to the printing press.  The concerns you listed were similar to dropping leaflets from aircraft during WW2.  I have a feeling that not many troops are going to lay down their arms without a direct order from their superiors.  That is the way they have been trained for centuries.  To lay down one's arms without an order to do so is desertion and punishable (still) by death.