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| [Apr 30, 2012, 09:51 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments |
CNET Australia - Anders Breivik, video games and the militarisation of society.
Both critics and supporters of games and gaming, it seems, are unable or unwilling to address the big picture: that Western societies are undergoing a process of militarisation.
Militarisation is the social process through which societies are organised in ways that allow for the production of violence. According to the feminist writer Cynthia Enloe, militarisation describes a process through which individuals come to view militaristic ideas and military needs as being significant and the norm.
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| 12. |
Re: Op Ed |
Apr 30, 2012, 13:18 |
Cutter |
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LittleMe wrote on Apr 30, 2012, 12:40:
Cutter wrote on Apr 30, 2012, 11:04:
Even the dumbest, staunchest military supporter realizes that a military is of no use if there's nothing to protect.
This isn't true. Political figures will find new enemies and beat the nationalistic drums of war as long as the masses buy into it. It's an ego enhancing behavior. People want enemies to compare themselves with. The more they differentiate themselves from perceived enemies, the more they enhance their false sense of self. It is human insanity.
Couple with all those people leaving the military and the focus becomes spending on jobs, education, infrastructure, etc. where it should be.
The warfare/welfare state goes hand-in-hand. They are two sides of the same coin. If you want broad socialist policies ('central planning' to feel good), then you are also going to get militarism.
Hogwash. Most social democracies have very lean militaries and only invest in absolute essentials whereas most of the investing goes into education, health care, infrastructure, etc. It's in more idealized laissez-faire style capitalist sociey you see the war machine being used for the elites and the public coffers bilked by them needlessly. The US spends more on military than the rest of the world combined by a long shot. Eisenhower warned about this very thing when he left office and with good reason.
And when people have no jobs and the infrastructure is crumbling around them. When cities are going broke even the dumbest neocon gets that something is amiss when the military is getting tens of billions per year while Rome is burning around him. Do not doubt that there is a shift going on in the US and around the globe right now where people want to see less military spending and favouring of the elites and more of a shift to social egalitarianism. Socialism is not a dirty word, and those who didn't understand it before are waking up to it now.
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