Thursday, April 17, 2014

American Feudalism - 10

"clique" to enlarge
The graphic to the left, from National Priorities Project, says a lot.

There has been a surge in military spending for wars since circa 2000, leading to a doubling of military expenditures.

Excluding classified (secret) budget amounts, the known military spending is still the largest single expenditure in the U.S. budget, which, as has been pointed out in this series already, is the dark-ages foundation of feudalism --a militaristic economic structure that eventually enslaves the citizenry (see e.g. American Feudalism - 6).

Historical scholarship confirms this generally unknown reality of history:
Warfare was endemic in the feudal period, but feudalism did not cause warfare; warfare caused feudalism.
...
Feudalism was the medieval model of government predating the birth of the modern nation-state. Feudal society is a military hierarchy in which a ruler or lord offers mounted fighters a fief (medieval beneficium), a unit of land to control in exchange for a military service. The individual who accepted this land became a vassal, and the man who granted the land become known as his liege or his lord. The deal was often sealed by swearing oaths on the Bible or on the relics of saints.
US v Them: Click to Enlarge (Global Security)
...
Before a lord could grant land (a fief) to someone, he had to make that person a vassal. This was done at a formal and symbolic ceremony called a commendation ceremony, which was composed of the two-part act of homage and oath of fealty. During homage, the lord and vassal entered into a contract in which the vassal promised to fight for the lord at his command, whilst the lord agreed to protect the vassal from external forces.
...
Feudalism was a political system which was dominant in Europe during the Middle Ages. First used in the 1600s, the term refers to a hierarchy of reciprocal military and legal obligations among the nobility. In simplified terms, a lesser noble (the vassal) would pledge his loyalty (fealty) to a higher noble (the lord) in exchange for land (a fief). In return, the vassal gave military service to the lord. As armies were expensive to raise and maintain, a lord was able to distribute the cost (in men and money) among his vassals.
...
Feudalism was based on the exchange of land for military service. King William the Conqueror used the concept of feudalism to reward his Norman supporters for their help in the conquest of England. Life lived under the Medieval Feudal System, or Feudalism, demanded that everyone owed allegiance to the King and their immediate superior.
...
The feudal society was constructed for one reason: security. The nobles wanted the security of maintaining control over their far-reaching kingdoms, so they were forced to delegate power to local control. The peasants wanted security from marauders and barbarians from neighboring lands. They also wanted security from invading armies. And thus the development of the feudal system and the fief structure was almost inevitable. However, all this came at the great expense of the common man. He gave up many freedoms for his security. The question we ask you is: Was it worth it?
(American Feudalism). It is not worth it to destroy the fabric of a nation along with its constitutional democracy, which is what we have been warned of for over 200 years:
"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.

War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied: and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people.

The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals, engendered by both.

No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

Those truths are well established."
(ibid). We are told the opposite by the doublespeak media, that is, we are told that we must have continual warfare to preserve freedom.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

6 comments:

  1. I hope you don't mind, but I reposted this page (including a link back to here, and your source for the quotes from the first in this series) over on CoIC to both back up another article and to indicate the direction we're being led by "our" (corporate) representatives. Thank you.

    Tom

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is fine Tom.

      This is a blog to serve the public interest.

      Thanks for helping.

      Delete
  2. Very nice work. I'm looking forward to reading on a regular basis.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Howdy! This is my first comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and say I
    genuinely enjoy reading through your articles. Can you
    suggest any other blogs/websites/forums that go over the same subjects?
    Appreciate it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Check out the "Links" tab at the top of the page.

      Delete