stan van houcke: Militarization of Western Society

donderdag 2 augustus 2012

Militarization of Western Society

The Militarization of Western Society

Selected Articles

Global Research, August 1, 2012

URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=32157

Are Western governments waging a war on people power? The signs of a sprawling police state in the U.S. are abundant and conspicuous: a specialized military police trained for civil unrest, a wall-to-wall spying apparatus monitoring ordinary citizens, media censorship, re-education camps, etc.

Prof. James F. Tracy notes:

“As the recent emergence of US plans for indoctrination in reeducation camps reveals, Western governments’ actual enemy is the capacity for a people to exercise critical thought en route to intervening in and altering political-economic processes.” The Framework For Suppressing Information: Public Opinion in America's 21st Century Police State

The military also plays an important role in the police state framework, not only as an instrument of repression but also as a propaganda tool. The overwhelming presence of the British military at the London Olympics and most of all, its very symbolic hoisting of the event’s flag, which should epitomize peace among all nations, is at once Orwellian and unequivocal: “War is Peace”.

Finian Cunningham argues that the 2012 Games are reminiscent of Orwell’s classic novel 1984:

Given the juxtaposition of this glitzy event and its garish corporate sponsorship alongside the sprawling grim poverty for many Londoners – amid the backdrop of full-scale military operations and surveillance – there is an eerie sense of George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984.

Orwell’s classic story of an authoritarian police state was set mainly in London, [...] The impoverished majority of the populace, the “proles”, had to content themselves with seedy pubs and the faint hope of winning a weekly lottery, while the “inner circle” lorded over the masses. The proles were kept in their place of servitude by emergency powers and a permanent state of war. London’s Militarised Olympic Games Conjures Up Orwell’s 1984

Global Research offers its readers a list of selected articles on police state and the militarization of Western society. For more articles, visit our files on Police State and Civil Rights and Militarization and WMD

SELECTED ARTICLES

	THE COUP OF 2012: Encroachment upon Basic Freedoms, Militarized Police State in America - by Frank Morales - 2012-06-14
	We claim and hope to be a society of laws, by the people, for the people. But we are not. Nonetheless, we are capable of igniting a revolution of values and becoming the land we all aspire to “with justice and freedom for all.” But in order to get there, we will have to overcome the coup of 2012.

	POLICE STATE USA: The Paranoid Style of American Governance - by Prof. James F. Tracy - 2012-06-03
	US legislation exhibiting undue suspiciousness toward allegedly strange "others" suggests how the paranoid style has imbued American governance, in the blizzard of new laws, programs, and executive orders dating from September 11, 2001.

	Specialized Military Police Deployed in America During Civil Unrest - by Susanne Posel - 2012-08-01
	Drills involving the US military and mock civilian uprisings or riot scenarios were conducted at Vigilant Guard 2010 where “Americans” were told to demand food and their Constitutional rights while soldiers practiced subduing and containing them.

Militarization: The Olympic Flag in the Hands of Soldiers

- by Manlio Dinucci - 2012-08-01

	London’s Militarised Olympic Games Conjures Up Orwell’s 1984 - by Finian Cunningham - 2012-07-15
	Orwell’s 1984 looks increasingly like life imitating art. In 2012 the London Olympics will also resemble a war zone, owing to the spurious “war on terror” that the British government and its American allies have embarked on in the pursuit of domestic and foreign dominance.

	Spying on Americans: Police Scanners Everywhere... Government Will Soon Be Able To Know What You're Thinking.... - by Washington's Blog - 2012-07-12
	The National Security Agency is building a $2 billion dollar facility in Utah which will use the world’s most powerful supercomputer to monitor virtually all phone calls, emails, internet usage, purchases and rentals, break all encryption, and then store everyone’s data permanently. The spying isn’t being done to keep us safe … but to crush dissent...

	The Rise of the Police State and the Absence of Mass Opposition - by James Petras, Robin Eastman Abaya - 2012-07-25
	Despite the vast expansion of the police powers of the Executive Branch of government, no mass pro-democracy movement has emerged to confront the powers and prerogatives or even protest the investigations of the police state.

	THE FRAMEWORK FOR SUPPRESSING INFORMATION: Public Opinion in America's 21st Century Police State - by Prof. James F. Tracy - 2012-05-20
	The police state’s framework for suppressing information and opinion threatens all forms of independent thought and appears poised to intensify as the “war on terror” continues.