As Science Fiction writers, we have to think about the future. While this is not at all a complete or even well-organized collections of ideas, it's just meant to be a starting point for thinking about the upcoming stage in societal development.
Here are two military men whose names may never be forgotten, not for their military legacy, but because everybody loves fried chicken. They are of course General Tso and Colonel Sanders.
Outside of a small region of China, no one really remembers the nineteenth century accomplishments of General Tso. And while Colonel Sanders did serve in the military, his title of Colonel is a non-military title bestowed on him by the Governor of Kentucky.
But why am I prattling on about fried chicken? I don't really remember because I came here to talk about Al Qaeda.
As you may know, this man is not loved for his fried chicken, although, like the Colonel, his photo immediately conjures images and emotions. He also is a military man, hated by most of the world and loved by the men who server under him. Unlike General Tso and Colonel Sanders, his military does not serve a country, it serves an idea.
This is where people might disagree with me, and claim that al Qaeda is merely the fundamentalist branch of Islam, but I would argue that it is the idea that Muslim culture can only through Sharia law that actually defines the movement. While they may get their impetus from God, their actual philosophy is based in this idea.
Al Qaeda is an information age organization. It has an army, it has a hierarchy, but it has no border.
However, no organization has learned to exist without borders as well as the corporation. Let's look at how the corporation solves problems.
Problem One:
Angry townspeople protest your factory poisoning their river.
Solution:
Move factory to a country where people are so poor they want to die.
Problem Two:
Corporate taxes are too high.
Solution:
Move headquarters to a fictional island.
Problem Three:
Child labor laws restrict our profit margin.
Solution:
Hire a subcontractor to do the work, don't ask questions.
Problem Four:
US law forbids you from selling Pentagon funded rocket technology to North Korea.
Solution:
Set up a dummy corporation, sell them the technology, and have them sell it to Kim J.
Has the American consumer followed the corporations, circumventing that whey they see as unfair by crossing borders? Here are just a few examples of how people are beginning to work around borders. These are just a few examples.
- There are websites devoted to helping people find hardware and software to play DVDs without the proper region code.
- People buy music from countries without strong copyright laws.
- Recently a student was banned from buying iPads. He was buying them from Apple and selling them in Europe ahead of Apple's European launch.
