Pax Internet

The next world power isn’t a country. It’s all of us.

This is the new order of international diplomacy:

• Old: Convince governments, and people will follow.
• New: Convince people, and governments will follow.

Ukraine’s greatest ally in its fight against Russia isn’t other countries, it’s public support.

• When President Zelenskyy posts videos online, his audience isn’t just his citizens and his enemies.
  • We’re all his audience. We’re all his potential supporters.

Pax Internet will encourage nonviolence by unifying the public into a force greater than any military.

• The power of enough people supersedes the power of any government.

Even the largest armies in the world aren’t that big by internet standards:

• China, India, USA, North Korea, and Russia have 12,992,600 active + reserve soldiers combined.
  • There are 50 subreddits that each have more than 13 million subscribers.
    • I’m not saying Redditors could win a real war.
      • But they could definitely win a meme war.

Memes have a long history of being used to rally civilians in wartime.

• Ukraine is winning the meme war vs. Russia.
  • Will this be enough to overcome a 5:1 disadvantage in active military size?
    • I think it will. We’ll see.

Don’t fear the end of Pax Americana. Pax Internet is here.

• “War is what happens when language fails.” ― Margaret Atwood

Pax Internet is on my list of solutions to The World’s Biggest Problems.

• This idea is a work-in-progress. If you’d like to riff on it, hit me up @neilthanedar on Twitter!