Sunday, December 10, 2017

The Garrison State Today

     On February 24, 2017, Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association told the Conservative Political Action Conference that "Right now, we face a gathering of forces that are willing to use violence against us....Among them and behind them are some of the most radical political elements there are.  Anarchists, Marxists, Communists and the whole rest of the left-wing socialist brigade."
     This is an example today of the concept of  the garrison state identified by Prof. Harold Lasswell in 1941.  Lasswell was describing the totalitarian regimes of both the fascist right (Hitler and Mussolini) and the Communist left (Stalin).  His concept became further developed as the siege mentality, whereby a whole society can believe and act as though they were captives within a besieged city (or country).
     We continue to see many examples of governments in which the leaders persistently cry out against foreign threats and internal subversion.  They not only exaggerate the threats, they exacerbate them in order to foist a sense of great danger that will convince people that they need to support the government's policies.  These include higher military spending, the law and order crackdown of dissidents, the promotion of traditional social and religious values, and the suppression of free speech and press.  In the end, the goal is not so much to protect the country as it is to promote the interests of certain internal groups and to maintain the individuals and the party in power.
     President Donald J. Trump, with the solid support of his base, including the National Rifle Association, is the current leader of an emerging garrison state in the U.S.  He is encouraging the siege mentality of Americans by emphasizing the dire threats of radical Islamic extremists and terrorists, ISIS, the nuclear threat of North Korea, the nuclear threat of Iran, proposed restrictions to the Second Amendment, and the dangers of illegal immigrants, especially Hispanics, to the safety and security of Americans everywhere.  He discourages the freedom of speech and the press by denouncing stories that challenge him as "fake news" to be disbelieved and rejected.
     Trump is not concerned with unifying the American people.  On the contrary, he feeds contentious divisions and social unrest with fear and anger to increase the siege mentality.  He himself and his White House staff display symptoms of deep paranoia.
     By scaring people, Trump is promoting an agenda that is highly favorable to certain interests and individuals in the U.S.  He does this through increasing budgets for Defense and Homeland Security, restricting immigration, constructing a wall along our border with Mexico, permitting the private exploitation of public lands in the West, rejecting global climate change in favor of fossil fuels (especially oil and coal), and passing tax "reforms" that provide tremendous concessions to large corporations, corporate executives, stock investors, investment portfolio managers, and other very high income and wealthy people. 
     Those people of the Trump base without so much material but with high emotional interests  indicate that they are OK with the crumbs from the table according to supply-side, trickle-down economic theories.  They continue to trust Trump and long for making America great again, which they see as crushing all of Trump's and their own enemies, foreign and domestic, real and imagined.
     It is obvious that high income individuals and the interest groups of the Trump base will gain much in material advantages from the siege mentality.  But how will the base of true believers also benefit?

(c) 2017 Stephen M. Millett (all rights reserved)  

3 comments:

  1. Perhaps Trump's base of true believers benefit only in that they gain -at least temporarily- a sense of cultural legitimacy: a validation of a certain retrograde world view. Alas, their euphoria cannot last. demographic change (i.e. the browning of America) and economic change (the greening of our energy sources) are tectonic, and inexorable forces regardless of who is President...

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  2. The garrison state concept rings very true. This piece from the WaPo quotes Bannon referring to the journalists, all of them, as "the opposition party". Who calls the press the opposition? People who want to control information. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/12/12/roy-moore-and-friends-wrap-up-a-campaign-against-the-opposition-party-the-press/?utm_term=.b9ec75c002ed

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  3. ...and yet he won the election! The People spoke and he won! Why? Why did he win? What drove us to vote for his reactionary Presidency?

    Perhaps we should admit that over the past two generations our trusted institutions have failed our society. What is the root of all this evil?

    I think it's a consequence of by The Digital evolution.

    For more than four decades computers and software have fed capitalistic passions for greater efficiency. The passion has climaxed. We are having serious - some would say panicked - discussions of life without work. And the incredibly naïve answer that is offered is 'change jobs more often and evolve your skills faster than the robots.' It's a platitude that rings hollow to an ever growing population.

    I believe our population has sensed this evolution. It's been a long time since you could change a job for more money. Today losing a job means taking a step down on the salary ladder.

    So, now we can't trust in the lose of the most promise of the American Dream - equal opportunity for upward mobility.

    Trump says he'll do something about it. Neither Republicans or Democrats said that.

    Perhaps that's why Trump won.

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