Mont Order group appears in fantasy art

An artist at the image-sharing site DeviantArt has produced pictures themed on the Mont Order, with many portraying sword-wielding monks in a fantasy-like style.

The images make the Mont Order comparable with the Jedi knights of the Star Wars films, although the artist may have had something more "sinister" in mind. Some internet users skeptical of the Mont Order group have described the (allegedly) ancient order as something right out of a "bad movie plot". Although these pictures will only strengthen that idea, they certainly look epic enough to belong among your favorite all-time internet searches.

Ferocious-looking demons are portrayed being battled by a devout, humble warrior we can assume to be a knight or other devotee of the Order. A caption reads that the Mont Order has sent its men willingly through the gates of hell, as they were so driven to fight to the death against evil forms. Other pictures portray a "civil war" with one robed figure set against another. The story being told is not clearly something related to the real Mont Order group.

The real Mont Order "society" can be read about and even joined by people at LOrdre.net, with participation at a Facebook group and inclusion in exclusive email lists possible through the Mont Order. It doesn't look anywhere near as exciting as the image below would seem to suggest, however.

Members are not being given cloaks, Lord of the Rings style suits of armor, or swords at the Mont Order, but you may get a free badge and a surge of social media influence if you are part of the society.

For more weird fantasy pictures of the Mont Order, it's well worth adding the gallery of this DeviantArt user to your favorites and reusing the pictures, as these images are free to use under a Creative Commons license.

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US Empire fears defeat in star wars?

The Blog

According to a recent Stratfor analysis, US generals are getting worried again. This time, about American space dominance in the face of increased anti-satellite capabilities in development by China and Russia.

As always, America sees threats everywhere and gaps in its attempts to manage the entire planet as a single perfect battlefield. The analysis states, "Increased competition in space is reviving fears of a war there, one with devastating consequences".

Included in the report is an acknowledgement that the increasingly unstable American empire is getting ready for pesky Russian or Chinese rebel attacks by planning to build ultimate battle stations in orbit:

Overall, the United States is getting far more serious about the threat of space warfare. Investment in new technologies is increasing, and the organizational architecture to deal with such a contingency is being put in place. In the race between shield and sword, however, there is no guarantee that offensive ASAT capabilities will not have the advantage, potentially denying critical access to space during a catastrophic celestial war.

Going beyond the Star Wars references, this story has a serious side, with grave implications for US global military dominance as it suffers from the inevitable decline of empire.

Stratfor's analysis admits that the US is more dependent on vulnerable satellites than other powers because of the global remit of its foreign policy (driven by US belief that the country must dominate the world). The US is only interested in military technology it can project globally to maintain its own power and threaten others, and has comparatively no interest in fortifying its own borders against threats or ensuring the regime's own survival.

Such mistaken priorities put the US at a disadvantage to Russia and China when trying to confront those countries at their borders. While US armies will depend on a flimsy chain of defenseless satellites to learn about Russian and Chinese forces, Russia and China will only need to depend on hardened ground-based radar systems deep inside their own territory in the event of war.

US satellite weakness is an additional component of the overall overstretching that is putting US forces on such weak footing against Russia and China in its hopes of "containment" of emerging powers, despite America's vastly greater defense spending. As long as the United States attempts to occupy the entire planet, its forces will be spread too thin to engage Russia or China in any effective way. US military dominance will hang by a thread of dependence on fragile technologies, such as its exposed satellites.

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Tech leads to anti-statism: 2015 at TED

The Blog

A fascinating TED talk recently re-posted by the Center for a Stateless Society relates weakening governments with accelerating social change and popular liberation by technology.

Originally from 2015, the TED talk by William Gillis equates the state with control, and control with building perfect defenses and security measures. All of these become impossible because the spectrum of disobedience, disruption and vandalism by people increases through technology and popular access to it (just ask hackers).

"The more means by which people can act the easier attack becomes and the harder defense becomes" the speaker argued. Using a Star Wars (image courtesy) reference that would be enjoyed by fans of the sci-fi series, Gillis states, "It’s a simple matter of complexity. The attacker only needs to choose one line of attack, the defender needs to secure against all of them. This isn’t just true of small thermal exhaust ports, it’s true in our software ecosystems today and any other system with many dimensions of movement."

The thermal exhaust port is a weakness in the Empire's deadly Death Star battle station featured in Star Wars. In the film, rebel hero Luke Skywalker destroys the planet-killing weapon by firing a proton torpedo through the thermal exhaust port, causing a chain reaction that destroys the Death Star.

Edward Snowden could perhaps be likened to Luke Skywalker, one man able to bring the colossal machine of tyranny down by being in the right place, at the right time, with the right technologies. Advanced technology, Gillis believes, adds concrete facts to support a form of anarchism and super individualism that previously had only been possible in theory.

In his conclusion, Gillis identified the idea of a stateless society with the posthuman society predicted by transhumanism, stating "transhumanism represents yet another arm of anarchism: a focus on expanding freedom in physical terms and a critique of timid retreat to some stultifying “human nature.""

According to Gillis and others at Human Iterations, we need a "social singularity" thinking about a post-state society filled with superempowered individuals equipped with the ultimate personal technologies, who no longer need governments to take care of themselves. It is hard to deny such a conclusion, as "The arc of human history is an arc bent by our creativity and inquiry towards more options, more ways of existing and acting."

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