Two books released in the past couple years have crystallized for me a sad vision of where we are and where we are headed as a society. Both revolve around the growth and now apparent permanence of the National Security State. They are Chalmers Johnson's Sorrows of Empire and Jim Carroll's just released House of War. I highly recommend both.
The sad conclusion that I have come to reading these histories and observing our present course is that the military-industrial complex has become so large and pervasive that we might not be able to stop it before it does lasting damage to our way of life.
First, I point to Johnson's lament in his book about our response to the trauma of 9/11. Johnson is a brilliant scholar and a clear thinker, so his warning really hit me in the gut. His feeling was that when 9/11 happened we actually had a chance to sit back, evaluate and maybe learn something about ourselves and the damage our aggressive, militaristic posture has done to the world and now ourselves. Instead, we went in the opposite direction and ramped up the militarism further. This response can't be entirely laid at the feet of Bushco. It is bigger than them. Johnson feels that if that event didn't change us, perhaps nothing can. This felt true to me and still defeats my general optimism about this wonderful place we call home.
Second, I am looking at the candidates that have already been chosen to be battling for the WH in 2008; John McCain and Hillary Clinton. I sit in amazement and wonder how this happened - how have they already been anointed with an air of inevitability? Then it occurred to me, McCain is more hawkish on the war than Bush and Clinton has done nothing but present herself as the greatest warmongering Democrat short of Lieberman. Of course! Anything that will keep the war machine and the MI complex growing is acceptable. I truly believe that when Hillary and Bill slip into bed at night, he counsels her with the most important lesson he learned as President - sell your soul to the military as soon as you can, because they call the shots and without them you have no chance. It is exactly what he did after he, unwillingly, challenged the military early on. This is exactly what this supposed "feminazi" liberal has done. Carroll clearly documents every stage of the machine growing out of civilian control and its far reach into civilian society. It has never been reversed and is worse than ever and tomorrow will be worse than today.
How is this practically achieved? I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I have to believe that the answer must lie in the instruments of propaganda and indoctrination - education and media. The Pentagon's reach into academia has been documented before and I won't discuss it here. But the MI complex impact on media is relatively unexplored and seems to me a good place to start research. There are a number of corporate ties between media companies and defense contractors and this may be a factor. In addition, the funding of an intellectual culture that supports militarism provides fodder for the non stop news cycle that needs talking heads to justify the latest abominations. I hope others follow up on these thoughts.
Yes, there is always hope, here and elsewhere. Which is why our most basic fights need to be for openness and net neutrality and issues that guarantee our basic right to organize, since they are under constant attack. We have won several fights in recent years from organizing on the net. Sadly, I feel like this is a race to some kind of doomsday scenario and our efforts take time. Will we be able to move fast enough?