Having spent the past week in London UK, I’m pleased to provide this short report from the veritable epicentre of 5th-Generation Warfare (5GW): the 21st century Blitz campaign.
If 1GW saw massed formations (line and column), and 2GW saw industrial firepower with artillery digesting manned armies (WWI), whereas 3GW saw speed and shock to shatter cohesion (WWII Blitzkrieg), while 4GW saw non-state insurgencies precipitating multi-decadal conflicts (Vietnam/Afghanistan), it now appears that we’re in the midst of what NATO’s Innovation Hub calls “the sixth domain”i or “cognitive warfare” ; what China’s PLA calls “unrestricted warfare” or “war beyond limits” ; and what Russia calls its “grey zone” or “hybrid doctrine,” all of which are structurally designed to undermine their target’s ability to observe their landscapes and properly orient themselves within it. In this new 5GW era, each global capital aims its dreadful deathstar of plausible deniability at each other, as much as its own citizenry, creating a permanent and seemingly inexhaustible perception of fog in which plebeians drown if they dare engage, but are ultimately forced to withdraw from the political sphere for the sake of mere sanity and survival.ii
As this process unfolds on an individual by individual basis, this can feel like a “polycrisis” where hypertrophic outrages are first absorbed and then ultimately dissipated by endless scores of seemingly unresolvable issues: from housing to homelessness to affordability to immigration to misinformation to micro-aggressions to education to job security to reproductive rights to gender roles to supply chains to climate change to AI to cyberhackers to drone swarms to deepfakes to various international boogeymen… it’s truly death by a thousand papercuts.
This Blitz isn’t evident everywhere in the world, or even the West, but it certainly is in The Big Smoke. Even as a humble tourist (if one with a fat wallet, a rockin’ bod, and a low-grade mid-life crisis), the underlying feeling of quiet resignation here is tangible. The best nightclubs are sexless; rizz relinquished, aura absent, brio strictly bounded, and apathy looming over the proceedings like the sword of damocles. Sky-high housing prices evidently keep out YOLO wage-earners, while helicoptering state video camera nannies prevent any pretences of fun. In more pragmatic affairs but very much by the same token, trains don’t even pretend to run on time,iii thousands of flights get cancelled for “air traffic control reasons”,iv political turnover rates make community league soccer coaching positions look stable, and even something as basic as air-conditioning is considered an unnecessary luxury evil in spite of record heatwaves.
London remains a very pretty city – certainly in terms of art, architecture, urban planning, gardens, and of course high-end cars – but the exhaustion is barely concealed beneath the surface. Locals point to Brexit or WFH policies or expensive energy as the sources of their ills, but they might as well point to the music of the spheres, or alchemical nigredo. In the opinion of your humble author at least, the root of the cause is the war that shall not be named… In spite of this, it remains pleasant place to museum,v shop, and cycle around,vi but no longer to live life like it’s fucking electric bro.vii
This being my second London trip this year, I think my cup is filled of The Capital for a while now. Comparison being the thief bringer of joy, I’m quite looking forward to upcoming trips to Tel Aviv as well as Art Basel Miami in the next few months, and also looking for more excuses to go back to Montreal and Warsaw. The adventure continues!
- After land, sea, air, space, and cyber. ↩
- Indeed, the Stans are ahead of the curve here, having already been beaten down by generations of autocratic savagery and being already forced to concede the literal absurdity that a people should ever be held responsible for the actions of their leaders (link). ↩
- In fact my train from Oxford to Paddington was 20 mins late because one of the staff showed up for their shift… 20 mins late. ↩
- According to FT (archived) it was “military aircraft” that were to blame for 2`000 flights delayed (and £100–150 million of total economic damage) on Sept 8-9, 2026. ↩
- The Wallace & Gromit exhibition at Young V&A was easily 9.5/10… just magical! I’d travel across country for it, happily.
The Kapoor exhibition at Hayward was 7/10, as was Moore @ Kew Gardens. Serpentine Pavilion by LANZA was 8.25/10. Nigo @ Design Museum was 5/10. ↩
- Lime bikes are 100% the most enjoyable way to get around The City. The infrastructure is just exceptional. ↩
- The mythical world of Austin Powers is ancient history. ↩