In the first post of this series Dredd Blog used the word "wartocracy" to indicate a type of government.
That word envisions a form of government based on the lusts of those few who control the reigns of war departments of government, specifically those who harbor and seek to increase the lust for war (Is War An Art or Is War A Disease?).
Since "lust" is difficult to condense into a concept of action at a governmental level, we have also viewed it from the perspective of "bullying" as envisioned by George Orwell, which he wrote about as bullying at the governmental level rather than at the individual level (Bully Worship: The Universal Religion).
The point being made in all of this is that the character of any government cannot be discerned nor described by the mere use of the word "government".
So, Dredd Blog got more into it by considering the various words used to characterize different types of government, different because they behave differently from one another:
The reality becomes at once obvious when one considers the many different forms of government that exist, or have existed, over time:(Who Are The Job Creators?). "What are some of the signs of a Wartocracy Dredd?", you may be wondering, so let's take a look:
Androcracy, Aristocracy, Autocracy, Communist state, Confederation, Consociationalism, Corporatocracy, Corporatism, Demarchy, Democracy, Despotism, Empire, Ethnocracy, Fascist state, Federation, Feudalism, Garrison state, Gerontocracy, Green state, Hierocracy, Isocracy, Interregnum, Kakistocracy, Kratocracy, Kleptocracy, Kritarchy, Kritocracy, Kyriarchy, Logocracy, Matriarchy, Mediocracy, Meritocracy, Minarchism, Monarchy, Nanny state, Nation-state, Nomocracy, Noocracy, Ochlocracy, [Oilagarchy], Oligarchy, Panarchism, Pantisocracy, Parliamentary state, Patriarchy, Provisional government, Plantocracy, Plutocracy, Police state, Polyarchy, Presidential, Puppet state, Republic, Socialist state, Sociocracy, Squirearchy, Stratocracy, Sultanism, Superpower, Supranational union, Synarchy, Technocracy, Thalassocracy, Theocracy, Timocracy, Tribe, Tyranny, Unitary state, [Wartocracy], Welfare state(Forms of Government). The creation of jobs in an Autocracy does not take place in the same manner as it does in a Communist state, for example.
It’s pop-quiz time when it comes to the American way of war: three questions, torn from the latest news, just for you.(Tom Dispatch , emphasis added; see also HuffPo). This is why Dredd Blog points out that war is the Highway 61 of the 1% (War is the Highway 61 of the 1%).
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Now, consider question two in our little snap quiz of recent war news:
In 2011, what percentage of the global arms market did the U.S. control?
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a) 37% ($12.1 billion), followed closely by Russia ($10.7 billion), France, China, and the United Kingdom.
b) 52.7% ($21.3 billion), followed by Russia at 19.3% ($12.8 billion), France, Britain, China, Germany, and Italy.
c) 68% ($37.8 billion), followed by Italy at 9% ($3.7 billion) and Russia at 8% ($3.5 billion).
d) 78% ($66.3 billion), followed by Russia at 5.6% ($4.8 billion).
Naturally, you naturally eliminated “d” first. Who wouldn’t?
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The correct answer for 2011, however, is the singularly unbelievable one: the U.S. actually tripled its arms sales last year, hitting a record high, and cornering almost 78% of the global arms trade.
We talked about what a U.S. General and a Secretary of Labor called "a coup d' etat" in yesterday's post (Ye Olde Gunboat Diplomacy Rides Again), so let's finish with what a former Deputy Secretary of The Treasury says about it:
... as a presidential appointee to high office, I had high level security clearances. In addition to my duties as Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury, I had FEMA responsibilities in the event of nuclear attack. There was a mountain hideaway to which I was supposed to report in the event of a nuclear attack and from which I was supposed to take over the US government in the event no higher official survived the attack.(Paul Craig Roberts, emphasis added). As the song lyrics say, "this ain't no disco, this ain't no fooling around".
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The government’s agents and apologists try to deflect attention from disturbing facts by redefining factual evidence revealed by experts as the product of “a conspiracy culture.” If people despite their brainwashing and lack of scientific education are able to absorb the information made available to them, perhaps both the US Constitution and peace could be restored. Only informed people can restrain Washington and avert the crazed hegemonic US government from destroying the world in war.
The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.
The lyrics to the following song ("Life During Wartime") are here.
The old gunboat diplomacy has morphed into drone diplomacy in this the space age.
ReplyDeleteThe results are 18th Century FAIL just as gunboat diplomacy was: Link
Dredd, This is H. Skip Robinson. Good to see you do this blog. Over my years of writing, I've noticed that the various groups within the left/right spectrum utilize different terms to make themselves look good and to make their opponents look bad. The way I see it, it's about trying to get the majority to understand the words and terms that are being utilized by the "establishment" as I think the Republicans and Democrats are both just puppets of the oligarchs. If you've noticed, the term oligarchs is used by numerous dissenters of the various policies of government and has been used for by some for a very long time. The term you used for above government, not one in 1 million people have ever heard of it. If you writing for a very small intellectual group, it's one thing, but on a blog to promote some idea of what you believe that may or may not be true is the wrong place and wrong time.
ReplyDeleteUntil people like you and I realize we're on the same team the world is going to remain deadlocked. There are just to many anti-capitalists in the world who have been taught to hate capitalism by the main stream media and the oligarchy, they represent. I assure you the capitalists (libertarians) are not part of the oligarchy as Ron Paul found out during the last election. As one friend likes to say the republicans are fascist and the Democrats socialists. Another says they're fascist to the right and fascists to the left. These are the terms they use to describe our political world and were not influenced by me. I agree with the latter, and so do many people but we can argue that. That's my point, the world has already set the preferred terms in use, despite what you are I write. It is our job to make sure that people understand them correctly.
On the post "Epigovernment: The New Model", a commenter wrote:"Dear Dredd, ... Epigov't meme is a strong useful word and concept."
DeletePeople differ on the concept I suppose.
In the realm of genetics when the word "epigenetic" was used to describe the discovery that personal behavior could turn genes on or off in an individual and even in that person's children, the word "epigenetic" was controversial for a time.
Now it is considered very basic and it is a branch of science.
Political science is slower.
"Aristotle pioneered the use of the term [oligarchy] as a synonym for rule by the rich, for which the exact term is plutocracy." (Wikipedia, "Oligarchy").
Some people still call our plutocracy an oligarchy as Aristotle mistakenly did in the 300's BCE.
The Wall Street Journal has more recently said: "... the U.S. is becoming a Plutonomy – an economy dependent on the spending and investing of the wealthy. And Plutonomies are far less stable than economies built on more evenly distributed income and mass consumption." (The Homeland: Big Brother Plutonomy - 2).
To call a plutocracy an oligarchy is not technically correct, because they are very different, so I don't.
Epigovernment can have a controlling influence on any type of government (oligarchy, democracy, plutocracy, etc.) without being an actual or official part of said government.
BTW, you have an interesting blog (Repairing The Scales of Justice).
DeleteDredd said "Aristotle pioneered the use of the term [oligarchy] as a synonym for rule by the rich, for which the exact term is plutocracy." (Wikipedia, "Oligarchy")."
ReplyDeleteHe also "Believed the mind was located in the heart, which contained all emotions and thinking. The brain was instead a radiator used to cool the heart." Link