Doug Casey with Some Thoughts on Phyles, Islam, and Warfare

Doug Casey is one of the few who has a good handle on the future. From Casey at internationalman.com:

I trust you’ll excuse some “stream of consciousness” style writing on my part. My crystal ball showing what we’ll see in the years to come is a bit cloudy. But I think the concepts below will tie together in disturbing ways…

Let’s start with the subject of phyles.

The concept of phyles originated with the sci-fi writer Neal Stephenson, in his seminal book The Diamond Age. I’ve always been a big fan of quality science fiction. There’s no question sci-fi has been an excellent predictor of both social and technological trends.

The book, set mostly in China in the near-term future, posits that while nation-states still exist, they’ve been overwhelmed in importance by the formation of phyles. Phyles are groups of people who are bound together by whatever is important to them. Maybe it will be their race, religion, or culture. Maybe their occupation or hobby. Maybe their world view or what they want to accomplish in life. Or it might be a fairly short-term objective. There are thousands—millions—of possibilities.

The key is that a phyle might provide much more than a fraternal or beneficial organization (like Rotary or Lions) does. Phyles might provide insurance services very effectively, since a like-minded group—held together by peer pressure and social approbation—eliminates a lot of moral risk. It might very well offer protection services; a criminal who might not fear taking out a citizen “protected” by a state, would think twice before attacking members of the Mafia.

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