En rysk fabel om informationskrigföring

I jakten på litteratur kring rysk informationskrigföring hittade jag följande ryska fabel som kändes lämplig att dela.

There used to be an ordinary turtle who constantly carried a heavy shell on its back. The shell pressed her to the ground and every step she took was hard effort for her. That’s why her life, measured by the number of those uneasy steps, was also hard.

On the other hand, when a hungry fox came running from a nearby forest, the turtle hid her head inside the shell and patiently awaited until the danger was over. The fox kept hopping around, trying to bite at the shell, trying to turn her upside down; all in all, trying all the steps typical of an aggressor, and yet the turtle prevailed.

Once upon a time, the fox got a big wallet, brought in a lawyer and, sitting across the turtle, proposed a buyout offer for the shell. The turtle considered it throughly, but due to her limited imagination, she had to refuse. And yet again, the fox left with nothing.

Time passed, the world changed, new means of telecommunication have entered the forest. One day, coming out of her house, the turtle saw a TV screen hanging off a tree, showing films of flying turtles, shell-less. Breathless with excitement, the woodpecker-announcer spoke of their flight: “Such a lightness! What a speed! How beautiful! Such an elegance!”. The turtle watched the show that day, and the next day, and the day after… And then a thought arose in her little mind, about how stupid she is to carry around that weight – the shell. Wouldn’t she be better getting it off? Life would be much easier. Scarier? Yeah, a bit scarier, but the news anchor-owl announced that the fox has turned to the Krishnas and became vegetarian.

The world is changing. The forest is also completely different; there are less and less trees and distinctive animals, and more and more indistinguishable stray dogs and jackals. “And really, why shouldn’t I fly? The skies — they’re so big and wonderful!” “If only I gave up the shell, and — right away — life would be easier!” — thought the turtle. “If only she gave up the shell, and — right away — she’d be easier to eat” — thought the fox, signing on the bill for yet another advertisement of flying turtles And one beautiful morning, when the skies seemed larger than ever, the turtle has made her first and last step towards freedom of her protection system.

The turtle didn’t know and never will, that information warfare is the purposeful training of an enemy on how to remove its own shell.