- .....All things change, including our time-honored system
of government. We have entered into a new era, marked by the existence
of an omnipresent state, controlled by the very few, bound by no law but
its own. Welcome to the New World Order.....
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- Five centuries ago, Niccolo Machiavelli explained how
to undertake a revolution from above without most people even noticing.
In his Discourses on Livy, he wrote that one "must at least retain
the semblance of the old forms; so that it may seem to the people that
there has been no change in the institutions, even though in fact they
are entirely different from the old ones."
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- That is, keep the old government structures, even while
you make profound changes to the actual system, because the appearances
are all that most people will notice.
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- So today, instead of seeing the corpse of a republic
in which we live, we see merely the dead man,s clothing. Those clothes
look the same as ever, albeit increasingly worn. We have had a quiet revolution
that has not eliminated our Congressional representatives it,s simply
made them largely irrelevant.
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- It,s been a long journey to our current state of affairs.
Not surprisingly, wars have been a major catalyst. Most wars fought by
the United States have added power to the executive branch, while whittling
power away from the legislature. This includes wars fought for high-minded
purposes such as the Civil War and World War Two, mindless bloodbaths like
World War One, and the dozens of undeclared wars over the past half-century.
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- I would select World War Two and its immediate aftermath
as the real turning point when the American Dream went awry. This is ironic,
since it was at that moment when America first sat atop the world at the
pinnacle of power.
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- And therein lies the problem. For this was when the American
republic began its transformation into a national security state. Or, to
put it another way, into an Empire.
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- Harry Truman has received a free ride from historians
who glorify the all-powerful American State, but it he deserves a large
share of the blame for the existence of our current behemoth perhaps a
future article will explore this more fully.
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- But enough of the past. This is, after all, post-9/11
America, in which we are collectively driving our vehicle down a dangerous
mountain path, only to discover suddenly that we,re not doing the driving.
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- We no longer govern ourselves. There is no "government
of the people, by the people, and for the people," in any meaningful
sense in any sense beyond what it might have meant to a citizen of the
U.S.S.R. in the bad old days of the Soviet Union.
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- As Machiavelli saw in his own time (and as he essentially
foretold regarding our own), the dramatic changes to our political institutions
have occurred without the people really noticing.
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- Consider the extraordinary "nonstop" would
be a better word number of U.S. military actions around the world these
days. But when did Congress last issue a declaration of war?
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- Consider the all-but open purchase of Presidents, members
of Congress, and anyone else of significance by those with financial means.
Yet another set of nails in the coffin of the American Republic.
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- Consider the internationalization of real power in this
world, and the lack of institutional means to examine or regulate such
power. Our global situation is akin to medieval feudalism, or more simply
gangsterism. The military power of the United States is the primary tool
for enforcement and self-enrichment by those with means. Best of all, you
don,t have to be an American citizen to influence policies of the U.S.
military. Just ask any influential Saudi Arabian, Israeli, or Chinese leader.
Or various leaders from the world of organized crime.
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- Consider the ramming through of the Patriot Act a bare
month after 9/11/01, when it was obvious that not a single member of Congress
read it thoroughly. With such a massively expanded federal ability to spy
into your personal life, you might as well bid farewell to the Fourth Amendment
at least if you,re doing anything interesting in the opinion of certain
and mysterious bureaucrats.
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- Consider the conviction held by America,s Founding Fathers
that a functioning democracy requires an informed citizenry. Otherwise,
they argued, the experiment in "government by the people" would
be doomed to failure, and would inevitably transform into oligarchy. Compare
that to our situation today, when ordinary people cannot gain important
information from governing bodies, when the Freedom of Information Act
is increasingly unfriendly, and when people are pacified 24/7 by a non-stop
all-encompassing entertainment-driven culture that dominates one,s waking
moments. The Romans called that bread and circuses. It describes our situation
well enough today.
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- In the same vein, consider also the promulgation of lies
by America,s political leadership that served as the pretext for the current
war (e.g. the false link between Iraq and Al Quaida, the falseness of claims
regarding Iraqi weapons of mass destruction), and the willingness of America,s
so-called Watchdog Media to jump uncritically on board, beating the war
drum. And when recognition is made that the information was indeed false,
it comes too late to prevent the pointless deaths of thousands of soldiers
and civilians.
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- Consider the horrified reaction to the savagery of Nazi
and Japanese atrocities during the Second World War. To the infamous German
defense -- "we were only following orders" -- the world responded
(rightly) that there are certain human values that must never be transgressed,
and that torture is never an acceptable human value. Fast forward to the
atrocities committed by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison. And the
defense offered by (what some like to refer to as) America,s finest: that
they did no wrong, since they were only following orders. Just ask American
soldier, Lyndie England. That,s what she told the world.
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- Consider the ominous, burgeoning discussion on developing
protocols in the event that the upcoming Presidential election needs to
be "delayed" due to a possible terrorist attack. Delay the election?
Even during America,s Civil War, the election of 1864 occurred right on
schedule. We,ve come a long way, indeed.
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- What has happened by degrees over the past fifty years
is that our traditional political structure and culture have eroded and
degraded into something that prior generations of Americans would have
found shocking and unrecognizable. Indeed, they would have found our current
state of affairs to be positively un-American.
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- Machiavelli certainly had it right, but an addendum is
necessary. After the true and deep structures of power have been sufficiently
transformed, the outward appearance must eventually catch up. As the old
song says, something,s gotta give, and the outward trappings will need
to be revised to reflect the new order.
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- Thus we see, in the wake of 9/11, that the veil of the
New State is being lifted. It is a State that has become so expansive and
powerful, it is no longer possible to hide it with the fig leaf of the
old, honorable ideology of republican virtue. Consider our era the "coming
out party" of the National Security State.
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- The millions of bumper stickers that proudly proclaim
"God Bless America" would be better expressed with a slight change:
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- "May God have mercy on the United States of America."
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- ©2004 by Richard M. Dolan. All rights reserved.
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- http://keyholepublishing.com/The%20Unveiling%20of%20t
he%20National%20Security%20State.htm
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