The degree to which western military, political and media elites live in an almost exclusively self-serving world of reality distortion is shocking. It works extremely well for them however.
For those who step out of line and point out inconvenient realities, things tend to go far less well. The positive incentive and active disincentive show why the most blatant flaws of the Soviet Union have now transferred westward.
There is clearly no money in being a pacifist these days (if there ever was). Peacemakers, diplomats and those of a disposition to find areas of agreement rather than conflict have become a dying breed if not already long extinct. 9/11 ensured that being a warrior seeking military engagement, endlessly pointing out the candidates to fear and building threat levels to the maximum levels their fantasies could bear… have become all-powerful in the West.
There is hardly a sliver of free space where worriers over the consequences of endless war could find any opening among hawks endlessly circling ready to drop massive amounts of ordure upon them at the least sign of rationality. The creation of endless wars and the endless profits that come from them has become a prime industry with a revolving door between the political, military and media spheres.
Take the latest pronouncements from US Under Secretary of Defence for Policy Colin Kahl:
"In the coming years, Russia may actually represent the primary security challenge that we face in the military domain for the United States and certainly for Europe. Russia is an increasingly assertive adversary that remains determined to enhance its global influence and play a disruptive role on the global stage, including through attempts to divide the West."
These words are indicative of the kind of group-thought communications which engender a convenient response from the tone-deaf community to which Mr Kahl belongs. Within their collective, extremely remunerative belief bubble this kind of statement accrues knowing nods. They keep the pot boiling nicely and the coffers of all concerned well topped up. That they also create an ongoing atmosphere of needless fear among western populations at large and collectively may well lead to mass death and destruction is completely irrelevant to the task at hand.
The self-serving role of an entire industry of military chiefs and national security analysts, think tank members and mass media editors is to keep the fire under the entire enterprise extremely well stoked. Not a word must be heard that echoes any truly rational stance where the remotest possibility of peace breaking out may occur. This tiny elite (by comparison with western populations as a whole) work solely and self-servedly only to maintain their ridiculously powerful cabal in clover.
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