DOUG NEISS - Military might, market ideology and moral posturing: A toxic combination that has poisoned America

By Dilip -

Many of us who support government social programs still feel ambivalent about them — largely because we buy into, or are cowed by, the ideologies of free enterprise and militarism. The first holds that we alone determine our lot in life through competition and have no obligation toward others beyond taking care of ourselves and our families and obeying the law. The second exalts the soldier, who risks life itself in combat for God and country, who will sacrifice his own life for the sake of comrades (but who will also kill any member of an enemy population, man, woman or child, who might pose a threat). 

Proponents of these seemingly incompatible but actually closely aligned ideologies — self-interest versus self-sacrifice, mercenary versus military — may pose as defenders of traditional Judeo-Christian morality when it suits their purpose, but will also abandon it without fanfare when it does not. In contests of arms or money, the categorical imperative gives way to its opposite: beggar thy neighbor, do unto others or be done by, the law of the jungle, survival of the fittest, the war of each against all, my country right or wrong, etc. This turning of traditional morality on its head is passed over in silence, leaving the morality intact to serve as bluff and intimidation but also as a sop to conscience.  …

https://www.salon.com/2021/03/13/military-might-market-ideology-and-moral-posturing-a-toxic-combination-that-has-poisoned-america/

Walter Benjamin: Capitalism as Religion (1921)

WILLIAM J. ASTORE - Killing Me Softly with Militarism: The Decay of Democracy in America

Can Capitalism and Democracy Coexist?

Noam Chomsky: Internationalism or Extinction (Universalizing Resistance)

Tanya Gold - How materialism makes us sad

Marina Hyde: The question every politician should be asking is, what does Mark Zuckerberg want with us?

DANIEL LEWIS - Daniel J. Berrigan, Defiant Priest Who Preached Pacifism, Dies at 94 // Catonsville 9 Statement written by Dan Berrigan, S.J.

Noam Chomsky: Neoliberalism Is Destroying Our Democracy

Sam Kriss: 'Neoliberalism' isn't a left-wing insult but a monstrous system of inequality

Zack Stanton: Violent Christian Extremism in the USA

John Pilger - The silent military coup that took over Washington

Bernie Sanders: Joe Biden must put an end to business as usual. Here's where to start // GOP nightmare about to come true: Senate Budget Committee Chair Bernie Sanders

Paul Blumenthal: Trump’s MAGA Myth Reaches Its Catastrophic Conclusion / Schwarzenegger compares Capitol riot to Kristallnacht / Bharat Bhushan: Vigilantism threatens India too

Amulya Ganguli - End of India’s “Howdy, Modi” Bonhomie with the USA

Donald Trump's gift to America: Realizing we've never been a liberal democracy. By PAUL ROSENBERG

Steve Bannon Documentary, 'The Brink', Will Leave You Cold

Mohammed Hanif: The rest of the world has had it with US presidents, Trump or otherwise

You're fired ! Americans taunt Trump with his own catchphrase

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ends truce by warning ‘incompetent’ Democratic party

George Monbiot: Ayn Rand - A Manifesto for Psychopaths

Tom McTague: The Decline of the American World

Donald Trump: Democracy’s mirror image? By Philip Manow / David A. Bell - Fascism or Caesarism?

Jonathan Freedland - Donald Trump's plot against democracy could break America apart

Debt: The first five thousand years. By DAVID GRAEBER

HARRY BLAIN: America’s Wars always Come Home

Jill Lepore  A History of America’s military spending

Jonathan Freedland: Trump is destroying democracy in broad daylight // Chauncey DeVega: Vigilantes are preparing ‘to launch a coup’

Chauncey DeVega: Trump is mentally ill but our real sickness runs much deeper

America isn't breaking. It was already broken. By Andrew Gawthorpe // Why This Time Is Different. By Dahlia Lithwick

Black and Unarmed and Killed by the Police…an incomplete list…This is America….


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