When We End War, The Power Of The Oligarchy Will Collapse

There’s a reason why war and militarism are blocked from the mainstream conversation. If Americans knew about the details of what their government is doing around the world, they would revolt. Would they stay complacent while knowing that the U.S. is currently in undeclared wars with eight countries, the attacks on all of which are illegal under international law? Would they be able to rationalize the size of a military that has over 1000 bases around the world in eighty countries, and is occupying 53 out of Africa’s 54 countries? Would the media’s war propagandists be able to glorify America’s drone attacks, which Airwars estimates killed between 3,900 and 6,100 noncombatants in Syria alone during 2017?

These things are hidden from the public because the end of the war paradigm would mean the unraveling of corporate capitalism. War is how the plutocracy maintains its oil economy, stops disobedient countries from dropping the dollar, and keeps up the stream of profits for Washington’s weapons contractors. As George Orwell assessed about war-based societies, it’s also how they create the poverty and ignorance that a hierarchical system needs. If war goes away, so do the tools for sustaining the elite’s power.

There are honest public commentators, like Abby Martin, Caitlin Johnstone, Seymour Hersh, Lee Camp, Sarah Abdallah, and many others, who are using their platforms to expose the crimes of the empire. There are organizations working to end the war paradigm, like World Beyond War and the Anti-War Committee, that we can support. As we work to inform the public about this issue and take action against the forces of empire, we also need to see through the war state’s supposed invincibility.

“They fight with increasing aggression to lull us back to sleep, often overextending themselves and behaving in a way that gives the public a glimpse behind the mask of this entire corrupt power structure,” wrote Caitlin Johnstone last month about the vulnerabilities she sees in the establishment and its war propaganda machine.”Someday soon that mask will slip right off and come crashing to the floor. That crash will wake the baby, and that baby will not go back to sleep.”

Keep in mind that these words were written by a journalist who’s deeply studied the war machine and its enormous power. This machine, Johnstone has concluded, is like a “blob” whose sole purpose is to serve banks and global corporations. The blob is nationless and borderless, she says, and sees countries only as tools. It controls the biggest military force in history, and polices the homeland by monitoring people’s electronic communications while spreading covert government propaganda. But Johnstone thinks it can be taken down.

When millions of people around the world build a sustained effort to resist militarism, the system will be forced to bend in this way. This will make the oligarchy and its blob of global influence unravel. This will let humanity reach our full potential, unconstrained by the prison that the global elites have created.