Is the pen is mightier than the sword still relevent.

The ancient saying of "The Pen is mightier than the sword" is still a wise saying and in many instances it is true but could there be a modern equivalent ?

Imagine for a moment you have a group of Mexican rebels forming on the US / Mexico border, their sole purpose is to kill as many American as possible, there is only about 200 of them, all identified by a distinctive skull mask they are all wearing. They are armed with assault rifles and sub machine guns. The US military knows they are coming, they have drones circling above them ready to fire plus half of the Texas National Guard are roughly a kilometre away ready to fire.

No also imagine a 18 year old autistic boy who's parents are wealthy but never around, he lives in somewhere Manhattan, constantly gets bullied for being a geek, has a few friends online he plays video games with, but sadly due to the expensive school his parents send him, and his appearance and interests no one gives him the time or day at school. Now this boy is very good with computers, and believes that the world hates him, but can you blame him ? So he and his internet friends decided to do something that will show society not to fuck with them, armed only with a pc from Amazon, his ability to code and understand the inner workings of the Virus protection ( I could have said he is a hacker, but I didn't want to sound like Fox news), he is able to gain access to vital military and CIA documents.

Which one do you think America is more scared of?

The Mexican Rebels can be wiped out before they even enter the US, the person who kills them is probably flying the drone from a shipping container in Nevada. But the Media will have a field day, right wing politicians will be faoming at the teeth at the prospect of building an American equivalent of the great wall of china. News stories will say how amazing it is that the US military saved them from certain death, there will probably be parties in the streets and someone will blame Obama. It will cause a few diplomatic issues but America will come out on top.

Now what about our little lonely emotionally unstable hacker? The guy who dose not have ideals apart from the fact he just wants to fuck shit up. He can strike at any moment, causing more trouble than 200 Mexicans rebels ever will. He does not have a face, the media don't know about him and a lot of people don't want to believe that in the country that fights terrorism on a global scale has their own homegrown problems. He can if he wanted control the voting system at the next election, he could share millions of peoples bank details, leak thousands of documents detailing all of the CIA's undercover agents along with FBI's, he could tell us who really killed Kennedy. The damage he could do with with a USB stick is endless.

It would be understandable that even if they never admit it they are more scared about a teenagers who has an unhealthy obsession with an anime character than rebels who have 20 year old AK-47s. It's easier to deal with the enemy you know than the enemy you don't. (I think I stole that line from some where but not sure where) So the saying the pen is mightier than the sword is correct but, to make it sound more edgy and media friendly the Pen Drive is mightier than the Gun.