A Thought Experiment

Rest easy, Einstein fans.  No need to break out the slide rules.  

This is a social thought experiment, and it has to do with Blackwater.

The point of the thought experiment is to get you to take a peak outside the box that we have allowed ourselves to be cartoned up in.  That's all.

Whenever I mention Blackwater in a post, I make sure to label them "a right wing paramilitary group."  I do that because they are a right wing paramilitary group.  Just google Blackwater or read their CEO's bio, if you doubt that last sentence, by the way.  And they are latched onto the government tit so hard they wouldn't fall off if you slammed them upside the head with the butt of an Uzi.  

In other words, we the people are actively funding the establishment and growth of a multibillion dollar right wing paramilitary army with bases planned and/or running all over the United States, and tentacles across the globe.  So, here's where the thought experiment comes in:

Imagine yourself as ex-military (don't pretend if you already are) and you love the military life but hate the cya command structure and the neocon nightmare that the Bushists have created.  You want to be a hero, but you don't want to do it in an insane war without end run by nutjobs.  Whachagonnado?

Well, why don't you muscle your way into that 3rd nipple from the hind end: Form your own left wing (but don't call it that - Blackwater's MO is a fine one to follow in that regard) paramilitary  army, and take a few select jobs that Blackwater will be restricted from bidding on after the upcoming election cycle?  I mean, why do the Musharaff-loving crypto-fascists have a monopoly on the Intimidation Racket?  And who's gonna stop the Millennialists from initiating their own private Armageddon, if not the Rationalist Forces?

Ok, now imagine you actually do it, you begin to organize a private, high-power security firm, with a lot of help from a lot of fellow patriots.  Man, that was a lot of work.

Now imagine the court battles you will be involved in before you even are allowed to purchase your first rocket launcher or attack chopper: Blackwater will sue you to prevent you from forming a "Partisan Army."  You will, of course, agree with Blackwater that you are indeed forming a "Partisan Army," modeled in fact, on the "Partisan Army Template": Blackwater itself.  The laughter will be deafening.  

Blackwater will then present itself as a victim of corporate character assassination, whereupon you will (of course) respond, "Corportations don't have character, they have board members and investors, whose characters are fair game if they are in the public domain.  Eric Prince, in fact, is a good example."  (That's because Eric Prince is a right wing zealot with a small medium sized nation's arsenal.)

The courts will rule in Blackwater's favor of course, not wanting to be offed or kneecapped or something like that.  Or maybe the Judge is a personal family friend of both the Bushes and the Princes and enjoys the occasional jaunt off to someone's private island with a fully stocked bar and visiting massage therapists (several ethnicities).    Or maybe the judge will rule in Blackwater's favor because she had a nephew who tried to join the military but was rejected because of mental issues, and she was promised by Prince that he would find a position for the boy.  The possibilities are endless.

Or maybe Eric Prince will be assassinated by a member of his catering staff who is a CIA plant and Congress will pass a bill outlawing catered events on paramilitary bases without a note from their mother saying it was ok.

End of this thought experiment, apparently.

End of the Great American Experiment: RIP 2007

•  tips,

  like: seen any good movies lately?

  by nailbender on Thu Dec 13, 2007 at 09:32:30 PM PDT

  •  Bravo, simply Bravo...!

    Wouldn't there be hell to pay all over the face of the nation and the media if anyone thought "left of center" folks were open to hiring a "left of center" paramilitary firm.
    It wouldn't be tolerated for a millisecond. And the converse occurs with a mild sense of benign neglect.
    Again, Bravo!

    by BWildered on Fri Dec 14, 2007 at 12:51:30 AM PDT

    •  one bravo out of 150k posters

      not bad.

      Thanks for the recognition.  I hope someone does it.

      by nailbender on Sat Dec 15, 2007 at 05:19:15 PM PDT

•  This Process Started A Lot Sooner Then You Might

  think. Over the past several decades the government has started to outsource just about everything you can think of. A perfect case in point is DynCorp. They made their money, initially, with huge contracts to keep planes and choppers flying. They've now branched out into about everything else you can imagine.

  Jobs that used to be done by the military are now being outsourced for huge sums of money. That just seems to be how things work.

  Good movies, nope. But did just start reading the Golden Compass (cause of all the noise about the movie). And it is really pretty darn good. And I am not much of a "fantasy" guy.

  by webranding on Thu Dec 13, 2007 at 09:39:38 PM PDT

  •  I picked a copy up at the thrift store last year

    and couldn't get into it.  I think Pope Calvin did me in.  But I never made it to the explanation about parallel worlds, and the daemons left me cold.

    But I've started it again, in the middle.

    Your observations are spot-on: this is what happens when you allow the government=bad/private=good philosophy to dominate the nation for a few decades.  The question is, can it be reversed?

    by nailbender on Thu Dec 13, 2007 at 09:50:38 PM PDT

    •  I Don't Think So

      So much of the core functions of our government is outsourced. If you work at the ATF and you call tech support you get a Unisys employee. You need a computer upgrade in the Navy most likely you are calling somebody from EDS. You need a meal in a mess hall you are calling KBR. You need a part for a F-16 you are calling DynCorp. The list goes on and on and on.

      I think we'd have to increase the size of our military by 40-60%.

      Now I understand the concept of some outsourcing. But the government has taken it to a level that is totally out of control.

      by webranding on Thu Dec 13, 2007 at 09:55:54 PM PDT

      •  think of how much of the actual defense budget

        must be out of government's direct control right now.  Blackwater is the poster boy for that paradigm.

        by nailbender on Thu Dec 13, 2007 at 10:01:37 PM PDT

•  What's a good name...? Hillraisers

  by valion on Thu Dec 13, 2007 at 10:43:03 PM PDT