FutureMAP II

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David Morse has a nice analysis of FutureMAP -- the (supposedly) scrapped sub-project of TIA -- on CommonDreams What Was Behind the Pentagon's Betting Parlor? (8/4/03).

In discussing the broader environment of the regime, Morse states:

"At its most benign, this ideology rests on the very dubious assumption that every aspect of government, from elections to social institutions, to foreign policy, can be governed by the so-called free market. At its most vicious, it is simply monopoly capitalism masquerading as government: profoundly antidemocratic, as well as anti-competitive, with no thought beyond lining the pockets of the powerful.

The war on Iraq reflects this more vicious mode. The war was motivated by corporate greed, and sold with false advertising. Allies were bullied and bought. Underlying the administration’s steamroller approach was the arrogance of a monopoly. No alternatives would be considered. The largest-ever mass demonstrations around the world were brushed off like consumer complaints.

The Pentagon itself is run according to a more competitive model. Troops were delivered to Iraq in accordance with industry’s just-in-time standards of efficiency, with Donald Rumsfeld playing the role of a CEO downsizing the Pentagon as if it were a recent acquisition. Instead of the supplying the 240,000 or so troops requested by Pentagon brass, Rumsfeld delivered 170,000 - not enough to perform the many tasks of occupation

In both cases, the corporate model is flawed. Wholesale greed does not yield intelligent foreign policy. And a military occupation is not the same as a corporate takeover. "

I think that Morse captures not just the ideology running US policy at this time, but something that has been creeping into the basic ideology of the US and most of its population. Namely that everything is money, everything is profit, everything is corporations. We have moved a long way from the old hack "What's good for business is what's good for America." Integrated into this "consumer" society is corporate ideology in daily life. It should not be surprizing that it has finally found its champion in George Bush and unabashadly taken over the government of the United States.

The real question is "Can we the people take it back?" Will people see that everything is not about money and that coercive capitalism does not meet human (or the Earth's) needs? Is there a will to change in the land where nothing is free, and "you get what you pay for?"

There better be.

Posted by rowan at August 4, 2003 08:17 PM | Printable Version | [eMail this article!] |