Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Greg Jaffe — A decade after the 9/11 attacks, Americans live in an era of endless war


Endless war = dictatorship forever.

Fascism is capitalism plus murder.
▪ Presidential Agent II (1944)

The Washington Post | National Security
A decade after the 9/11 attacks, Americans live in an era of endless war
Greg Jaffe
(h/t Glen Greenwald @ggreenwald via Twitter)

I don't want to be all conspiratorial about this, but it is happening all around us now as even domestic security forces are militarized and the president is given the power to indefinitely detain and even assassinate US citizens.

15 comments:

Stefan said...

No, don't get all conspiratiorial. It might lead to a causality. Better assume that stuff just happens.

Major_Freedom said...

Facism is capitalism minus capitalism plus state control of the means of production.

miller B said...

no ,fascism is when capital controls the state.

Edmund said...

Major,

There was no private ownership of firms in fascist Italy and Nazi Germany?

Leverage said...

Fascism is the natural consequence of capitalism instability. When the oligarchs must keep control of the system they will use fascism to stabilize the status quo.

Capitalism is fascism, but in it's severity cyclically, as capitalism and 'the state' go hand by hand (in fact, the rise of modern bourgeoisie, went hand by hand with the rise of the modern nation-state). Just like the rise of current 'international oligarchy' goes hand by hand with the rise of international institutional arrangements & laws.

Ed Rombach said...

According a statement attributed to Benito Mussolini, who would qualify in anyone's book as an authority on the subject of Fascism; "Fascism should really be called Corporatism, because it is the merger of corporate power and government power."

miller B said...

The Best description i've seen is
Glen Yeardon's and John Hawkin's book The Nazi Hydra In America . Describes fascism as a top down revolution.

"Fascism is a rebellion or revolt by the elite to preserve their social economic status. This is the primary reason fascism begins during periods of economic turmoil. While the large number of followers of fascism such as Hitler's Brown Shirts came from the middle and lower classes, the elite of German society controlled the party. It was only after Hitler assured the prominent business leaders of his opposition to socialism and unions that he gained power."

Glen Yeadon's paper "What Fascism IS and Isn't" is also required for any serious study of fascism.

http://www.spiritone.com/~gdy52150/chpt1.htm

miller B said...

"We must take from state authority those functions for which it is incompetent and which it performs badly... I believe the state should renounce its economic functions, especially those carried out through monopolies, because the state is incompetent in such matters... We must put an end to state railways, state postal service and state insurance." The state returned large monopolies to the private sector after returning them to profitability such as the Consortium of Match Manufactures, privatized the insurance system in 1923, the telephone system in 1925, and many of the public works".

Benito Mussolini

sounds like austrianism was created of the backs of fascists.

Jonf said...

You guys figure out if you want to call this fascism. But there is no doubt the military has taken over. I saw somewhere that when you add up all the defense related money in the budget it is near a trillion. No one is in a position to stop it. We are now all around the world fighting terrorism or whatever they want to call it. And the latest thing- drones-makes it even easier. You even got your favorite senators saying we can't cut any military spending. But ok to cut back on the safety net, including unemployment insurance. What we have is military Keynesianism.

Anonymous said...

Hey Tom, want to see what it feels like to roll your eyes hard enough to give off sparks?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-pento/printing-doesnt-create-jobs_b_1752148.html

I kind of thought Huffpo had a reputation for being sort of ineffectually center/center-left in its readership, but the comment section under that piece of crap is WSJ Echo Chamber-quality. I guess things change.

Anonymous said...

There is nothing historically unusual about endless wars. Large, internationally ambitious states are always fighting some war somewhere, on some scale, either with mercenaries or their own troops.

Tom Hickey said...

@ Anonymous

Just read the Pento piece at HuffPo. The ignorance is thick. I would take a chain saw to cut through it.

Tom Hickey said...

Leverage: "Capitalism is fascism, but in it's severity cyclically, as capitalism and 'the state' go hand by hand (in fact, the rise of modern bourgeoisie, went hand by hand with the rise of the modern nation-state). Just like the rise of current 'international oligarchy' goes hand by hand with the rise of international institutional arrangements & laws."

Right, and it's because those who control the system set the rules. When the acquisitors (haute bourgeoisie) rule, they design the rules to be favorable for acquisition.

Tom Hickey said...

Dan K "There is nothing historically unusual about endless wars."

And that is why the Founding Fathers were so insistant that the US not repeat that pattern. They would be appalled that the Great Experiment in freedom is being unraveled by endless war.

BTW, someone recently asked one of the Chinese leaders what he thought about about The Great Experiment and he answered the the US was less than 300 years old, so it was too early to tell.

Matt Franko said...

Anon,

The gold and silver sellers must be taking out some ads in Huffpo.

Hence Pento shows up...

Rsp