Sand wrote:
Orwell wrote:
Sand wrote:
Capitalism is a system of production and consumption. There are giant firms that benefit hugely from government contracts that produce very expensive goods that are consumed very rapidly in war. They have well paid lobbies in Washington that urge purchase and consumption of these goods and may influence government policy on war. The USA spends many times more for these goods than any other nation. That is a very strong contributing factor. It is by no means the only one but it is one very large one.
The problem with this popular narrative is that the present is the most peaceful time in all of human history. Furthermore, US defense spending as a percentage of GDP is at a relatively low compared to what it has been historically.
In other words, you are coming up with an elaborate explanation involving some nefarious plot to describe events that simply are not occurring.
Amazing that you can relegate this to conspiracy theories when the facts are open and clear, If you are so totally happy with the state of the world, and i count you as one of the more perceptive individuals, mankind has a bleak future.
Trying to relegate other people's opinions to "conspiracy theories" is something Orwell is quite abnormally fond of doing. It seems to provide him with a regular and vital boost to his sense of identity and self-worth. The advances of the modern world and the fact that many of the "bad" things that happen are simply down to the actions of misguided individuals seem to have led him to the conclusion that people who go further and question "the system" too deeply can generally be written off. And so you get what you see above. It's one thing disagreeing with the "military industrial complex / war is a racket" explanation, but making out that all the wars the US has fought since World War 2 do not even merit explanations is something else altogether.
I have my disagreements with liberals, Marxists, anarcho-capitalists etc, but some of the stuff Orwell comes out with can really leave me lost for words. Or at least they used to before I noticed the pattern.
29 May 2010, 6:32 pm
