"...If anti-war protests made no difference, the US empire wouldn't have completely abandoned full-scale ground invasions after 2003 and switched to sneakier, less effective means of warfare while launching unprecedented narrative management systems to suppress anti-war sentiments..."
CJ... I am not sure this is true. I think the real cause and effect was and remains $. IMO, it may be much more profitable for our MIC to go "hi-tech" as there is no oversight or accounting for advanced munitions and their delivery systems... No news coverage... No Amerikan bodies coming home... War can continue extra profitably behind a screen of "reduced" conflict via secretive and indiscriminate emptying of arms inventories - necessitating, of course, constant quiet replenishment... Profits, Baby, Profits!
That's a common myth. Money is just a token of value and a signaling mechanism. They can print money all day long; what do they need ours for?
We are trained to fetishize money, to pretend that it is some real and intrinsically desirable thing outside ourselves, rather than a social relation that could be questioned. We are trained not to see the hands that take our own productivity away from us and sell just enough of it back to us that we can wake up the next day and do it all over again. What happens to the remainder, whether it is burnt in ceremony, built into war stuff, or snorted on Epstein Island is of no concern. The point is to enforce incapacity.
"every one but an ideot knows that the lower classes must be kept poor, or they will never be industrious:: I do not mean that the poor in England are to be kept like the poor of France; but the state of the country considered, they must be (like all mankind) in poverty, or they will not work." Arthur Young (1771), The Farmer's Tour through the East of England, v. 4, p. 361.
I like what you wrote and would add that money is a powerful corrupting force and the wealthy want more wealth and power. Wealth is not just money. If money were not a factor then they would not spend so much effort at wealth transfer. Money buys more than jets and mansions. It buys media, politicians, police, militaries, mercenaries, etc.
It's a factor, but it's more instrumental than moral. If it were not necessary for all of us to constantly argue, with a stack of tokens precisely accounted, for our worthiness to access the stuff of life, money would have no such effect, and we could simply say "Naw, your work project is lame and the paw paw fruits are ripe."
Exactly. I saw a video clip of a guy (years ago) (and I am old and my memory is not complete at times so excuse the lack of his name) but back to it.. He was a good long acquaintance of the oldest living Rothschild and he asked Rothschild that since he already has all the money what is the motivation to keep him involved with governments and business and the response was "Power"!
Also, they are like any group. I imagine that there is competition and infighting among the rich and powerful, yet, they unite when their class is threatened.
"...If anti-war protests made no difference, the US empire wouldn't have completely abandoned full-scale ground invasions after 2003 and switched to sneakier, less effective means of warfare while launching unprecedented narrative management systems to suppress anti-war sentiments..."
CJ... I am not sure this is true. I think the real cause and effect was and remains $. IMO, it may be much more profitable for our MIC to go "hi-tech" as there is no oversight or accounting for advanced munitions and their delivery systems... No news coverage... No Amerikan bodies coming home... War can continue extra profitably behind a screen of "reduced" conflict via secretive and indiscriminate emptying of arms inventories - necessitating, of course, constant quiet replenishment... Profits, Baby, Profits!
That's a common myth. Money is just a token of value and a signaling mechanism. They can print money all day long; what do they need ours for?
We are trained to fetishize money, to pretend that it is some real and intrinsically desirable thing outside ourselves, rather than a social relation that could be questioned. We are trained not to see the hands that take our own productivity away from us and sell just enough of it back to us that we can wake up the next day and do it all over again. What happens to the remainder, whether it is burnt in ceremony, built into war stuff, or snorted on Epstein Island is of no concern. The point is to enforce incapacity.
"every one but an ideot knows that the lower classes must be kept poor, or they will never be industrious:: I do not mean that the poor in England are to be kept like the poor of France; but the state of the country considered, they must be (like all mankind) in poverty, or they will not work." Arthur Young (1771), The Farmer's Tour through the East of England, v. 4, p. 361.
I like what you wrote and would add that money is a powerful corrupting force and the wealthy want more wealth and power. Wealth is not just money. If money were not a factor then they would not spend so much effort at wealth transfer. Money buys more than jets and mansions. It buys media, politicians, police, militaries, mercenaries, etc.
It's a factor, but it's more instrumental than moral. If it were not necessary for all of us to constantly argue, with a stack of tokens precisely accounted, for our worthiness to access the stuff of life, money would have no such effect, and we could simply say "Naw, your work project is lame and the paw paw fruits are ripe."
Exactly. I saw a video clip of a guy (years ago) (and I am old and my memory is not complete at times so excuse the lack of his name) but back to it.. He was a good long acquaintance of the oldest living Rothschild and he asked Rothschild that since he already has all the money what is the motivation to keep him involved with governments and business and the response was "Power"!
Also, they are like any group. I imagine that there is competition and infighting among the rich and powerful, yet, they unite when their class is threatened.