Saturday, September 20, 2014

Why the Wars?



I am reading “Advance to Barbarism,” by FJP Veale.  I will, as has come to be my practice, offer more than one post based on this book.

I will begin with a topic upon which Veale spends only a few words, but one which sheds light on perhaps the main purpose of war – at least war in the era of life in a time of something more than primitive living.

The various wars are often explained by the critics as wars for resources – usually oil, but also natural gas, transit pipelines, etc.  I have come to believe (and first came across this notion at The Daily Bell) that wars are for control – control of the people: the ultimate productive and renewable resource on the planet.

I came across some comments within Veale’s book that can be interpreted as supportive of this view:

To a hunting community, a prisoner of war is merely an extra mouth to feed…. Generally, prisoners taken in battle would be disposed of summarily with a stone club.

They fought over game – the meaningful “natural resource” of the time.

But as soon as a state of civilization had been reached in which there were fields to be tilled, walls, temples, palaces and tombs to be built, and mines to be worked, a prisoner of war ceased to be merely an extra mouth to feed, and came to possess a definite economic value as a slave.

They fought to capture labor – the most meaningful “natural resource” in even the most rudimentary division-of-labor economy.  For much of history, the “labor” captured was slave labor.  But it need not be so – it isn’t so today, at least not literally.

I do not intend to trivialize actual slavery by comparing it to what we have today; at the same time, it is worth noting the yoke under which we struggle.  To mention only a few points: fiat money, taxation, regulation, prohibitions of all sorts.  To note the effectiveness of the current system, it is sufficient to point out that the slaves at least knew they were under the whip of the master; today’s masters have developed a system of control so invisible that many cannot see it.  With the franchise to vote and otherwise petition the state – “we the people” – we are conditioned to believe that we are the ones in control.  Most believe they are free.

War expands the franchise – bringing more people under one or more of the many globalizing institutions: central bank controlled money and credit, international finance, centrally managed trade; opportunities for manipulation by the World Bank, IMF, WTO, and the UN.  Investment opportunities are opened for the crony capitalists. 

When you have developed a system that allows you to skim a few points off of every transaction, why care about oil?  Bringing more people under the yoke of that system allows you to skim a few points off of a few more people.

This is the reason for the wars – to capture the labor, to make the labor work for the elite.  It used to be done via slaves.  Today?  Look in the mirror.

6 comments:

  1. "...today’s masters have developed a system of control so invisible that many cannot see it."
    It's very difficult for your neighbours to accept this. I'll point out contradictions in the law, identify items in the news that clearly point this out and then ask them to re-examine their world view. The most effective method is to insist that at one time I believed in the lie in a self-deprecating manner, and then share with them how it became impossible for my soul to hold two, contrary ideas in my mind at the same time. Rather than suppress the contradictions and live life suppressing the truth to make myself feel better and quell the in-fighting between my instinct and reality, I divorced myself from media and sought the truth of any philosophical question, no matter where it took me. When I share a particular anecdote that woke me from my slumber, I get the impression in my next encounter that they have explored some on their own. This seems to be the most effective method that I have found.
    It's most effective when I point out the discrepancies between what the "good book" says and what Christians believe after having been thrown into the public education washing machine that cleanses the soul of common sense, history and reason. I beg them not to blame the teacher, their union or the administrators in government. I was blind at one time also, and therefore I have no reason to bash these lost sheeple. The only thing I can do is encourage them to awaken themselves from their slumber and stop denying the reality that is staring at them in the mirror. It's at first infuriating to the soul. My first instinct was to get a bamboo stick or fishing rod and whack my former teachers and minister for having the balls to send me into the world as an ignorant, blind, unprotected fool. And after I calmed down it came to me that it would be a waste of time to persuade them how wrong they were. And so it is.

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    1. Nice post!My experience has been fighting the cognitive dissidence?
      There is comfort in ignorance."I might have to suspend my whole
      understanding of history,relationships,core creeds."Most people
      are cowards.Look at how a child molester can move, and live in a family with impunity?

      Aldous Huxley/Plato had every one figured out?"People will grow to love their servitude."

      Great article!!Now I have read another damn book!!IWanted to watch the Cowboys and the Skins!!And tonight the new dancing with stars is premiering!!!

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  2. The conclusions of this article seem accurate to me. We ARE serfs, hence the title of my article is The Road FROM Serfdom. http://governmentbycontract.wordpress.com/the-road-from-serfdom/

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    1. I have written a post with the same title. I conclude that the serfs, in many ways, had it much better than we do today.

      http://bionicmosquito.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-road-from-serfdom.html

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  3. "I do not intend to trivialize actual slavery by comparing it to what we have today"

    I don't think comparing what we have today to "actual" slavery is trivializing anything because we are "actual" slaves today. Sure, we don't have chains around our necks or ankles, but we have very real chains around our minds. We are, in reality, far more enslaved today because of the simple fact that we falsely believe we are free (I'm using 'we' for the aggregate not that every individual believes it).

    The reality is that the bulk of humanity has been enslaved for thousands of years. Today we're allowed to be free-range slaves only because the masters have developed a sophisticated system of mind control.

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    1. Spot on!!! Even the ones that can see the bars can't get around
      them. Namely Me! and you!!
      I have one friend. Who you could say almost
      completely lives off the grid.And he is really free.No debt, raises own food ect. Essentially writes his own script.But he is so hamstrung in his ability to raise his standard of living beyond were
      he is.

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