MOMCOM: The Private Parts

The Arms of American Empire

The author of the book "Private Empire", two time Pulitzer winner Steve Coll, was interviewed on Rachel Maddow of MSNBC last evening.

A video of that interview is provided at the end of this post.

The title of Steve Coll's book can be a bit misleading, because to some readers it may signify that Big Dirty Oil (the "O" in MOMCOM) is a purely private empire, fully detached from the concept of public institutions of government in every way.

Not only is that not the author's intent, but nothing could be further from the truth, as depicted in the photo above.

The photo is used to illustrate the undisputed, but not well understood, American DNA characteristic: "the civil government controls the military". The exercise, then, in terms of understanding who controls that vast military, is to understand who controls the civil government.

Coll's heavily researched book backs up Dredd Blog's long-time characterization of the exercise of power in Western Civilization with the Dredd Blog caricature of "MOMCOM" (Military Oil Media Complex).

The Ways of Bernays

Why we gave up the old notion of "MIC" (Military Industrial Complex), as explained in the Dredd Blog post "MOMCOM: Mean Welfare Queen", is because it is so yesterday, it is so 1950's reality.

Furthermore, the dynamics of propaganda have evolved a 21st Century Fox persona now, as was shown in the post "The Ways of Bernays".

So, when we look at the psychological dynamics created and put into play by MOMCOM, in the last ~100 years, we find that in general, Americans have a belief system that sees government as a parent.

In the best of times that parent-government is seen as an ever vigilant entity bent on taking care of American needs, as discussed in the Dredd Blog posts: "Security: Familyland, Fatherland, or Homeland?", "In Loco Parentis & Parens Patriae - 2", and "In Loco Parentis & Parens Patriae".

The historical degeneration of empires informs us that this quasi-utopian notion Americans have is quite dangerous.

One illustration is depicted, during the interview in the show below, where the Exxon Valdez oil spill is discussed.

President Bush I sent the Commander of the Coast Guard to Alaska to oversee the clean-up, which evolved into a cover-up.

The Commander told ExxonMobil that he wanted 5,000 people to be hired to help clean the mess up. ExxonMobil said "no way."

The Commander and ExxonMobil both called Bush I to argue their case.

Maddow's interview revealed "who had the say".

There are other examples of Oil Barons telling presidents what to do in the interview.

Obama Encourages Americans To Risk Gulf Toxins

Why do you think President Obama took his two daughters swimming in the Gulf of Mexico during the infamous Deepwater Horizon catastrophe, or why the military presence in Afghanistan may not end until 2024?

That the MOMCOM structure is dangerous is exemplified by author Coll's quote of the CEO of ExxonMobil: "I am not an American company." [ UPDATE: see ExxonMobil goes to Russia ]

In that sense, "globalization" means taking "American" out of the equation, because international dirty oil corporations control governments to satisfy their corporate religion, which is explained by the doctrine "use everything at your disposal to make more and more profits", regardless of the consequences to the citizens.

So, when non-American corporations control American civil government in order to control the military establishment, the military ends up where the oil is, and the final result, when push comes to shove, is oil wars (see The Peak of The Oil Wars - 6).

The next post in this series is here.

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