The God of the Machine - Tranche 49

Posted by mshupe 1 year, 2 months ago to Government
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Chapter XXII, Excerpt 2 of 2
The Energy Circuit in Wartime

If Americans or Englishmen had been amenable to conscription at the time, there could have been no revolutionary war. The indispensable condition for victory is that the producers retain control of the production system. Napoleon is esteemed a master of the art of war, but at the end, the nation he commanded was exhausted and occupied by its enemies. He had command of the total resources of the nation. These “men of power” are mere scraps of wreckage, floating rubbish in a flood.

Military force consists of energy drawn from production and yielding no return. The military state is the final form to which every planned economy tends rapidly. Distinguished by their lack of productive ability and responsibility, widespread misery must ensue whenever an army is supplied by a source over which the producers have no control. The real military problem of a nation is to find where the energy for war should be taken off the circuit to maintain the maximum striking force in the end appliance.

A production system does not determine the moral relations of society. The moral relations create the production system. The dynamo is the product and means of production of the capitalist economy. How then, can America imitate the “totalitarian” nations? The higher the potential energy used in production, the smaller the army in proportion to the manpower of the nation. Free men created the dynamo; and it will not operate except in the private property, free enterprise society of contract.


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  • Posted by term2 1 year, 2 months ago
    So we are propping up Ukraine to fight Russia , and Ukraine will slowly lose until it’s totally destroyed
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    • Posted by tutor-turtle 1 year, 2 months ago
      That was the primary goal. It has become a total failure. What's worse, we have depleted what little stockpile of munitions we had. We lack the industrial capacity to produce the quantities needed to fight such a war.
      On the other hand, Russia's war machine is running three shifts and and has amassed an army of 1.2 million and rising (Col Douglas MacGregor)
      Worse yet, our governments foolish and unnecessary war-mongering (i.e. WarPigs) has given BRICS the spark it needed to obliterate the hegemony of the US dollar in the world market. I don't see any end to this jagernought. Our so-called leader have totally screwed us.
      When the dollar inevitably fails, we will become the Vermeer Republic.
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      • Posted by 1 year, 2 months ago
        If the goal was to protect Biden and NATO, how is this a total failure? "We lack the industrial capacity" - are you totally ignoring this book? BRICs have gained the spark they need - do you not know how capital works? Vermeer Republic? That's rich. America today would do very well to emulate the great Dutch Golden Age. If you're referring to the Weimar Republic, you're onto something, but not because of the failure of the dollar. That is merely an effect.
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        • Posted by tutor-turtle 1 year, 2 months ago
          Buy-Dumb is a total failure for which there is no saving. NATO is 99% America tax dollars supporting a totally dependent Europe.
          The dollar is circling the drain. Open your eyes.
          We are in so much debt it can never be paid off, How do you think that is going to play out? We will default. Get out your Number 2 pencil and do the math.
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          • Posted by 1 year, 2 months ago
            It depends on how you define failure. Biden's only objective was unearned wealth and recognition. He is hugely successful. The goal of his administration is to demonize competence, integrity, and independence. His handlers are hugely successful. Only someone rope-a-doped by all this would tell me to do the math. Regarding the debt, I can also lecture you on the cause and effects of that, for a fee. I take gold and PayPal.
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            • Posted by tutor-turtle 1 year, 2 months ago
              Speaking of dopes... If you call being a Grifter, a serial liar, a pedophile, a seditious traitor to his country, then the man who pooped himself in front of the pope is a HUGE success!
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    • Posted by 1 year, 2 months ago
      I don't understand Ukraine policy at all except to protect the Biden crime family and the arbitrary expansion of NATO. Regardless, that and massive spending for the environmental lobby and teachers unions wouldn't be possible without a massive counterfeiting operation.
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  • Posted by j_IR1776wg 1 year, 2 months ago
    “…The higher the potential energy used in production, the smaller the army in proportion to the manpower of the nation. Free men created the dynamo; and it will not operate except in the private property, free enterprise society of contract...”

    This quote encapsulates the story of every government in human history. The energy taken out of the productive system always ends up destroying both production and the military. This phenomena parallels that of the individual who attempts to burn his candle at both ends. In the short term a Nova like brightness followed by a crash and darkness. Hitler’s 1,000-year Reich lasted roughly 11 years.

    What I don’t understand is how these power-seeking, war now, war forever purveyors (Politicians, Bankers, Military) keep getting their way bloody century in and bloody century out. These evil people learn nothing, forget nothing, and care for nothing and nobody except for their own twisted dreams of glory
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    • Posted by 1 year, 2 months ago
      One explanation is the short-term mentality. It's easier than the mental energy of concept formation and rational action applied to value creation. It is pragmatism. Another is the sanction of the victim. Evil is impotent and can only metastasize by tacit or explicit acceptance of a plurality of guilt ridden cowards. Most importantly, duty over causality. The moral code of altruism.
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  • Posted by 1 year, 2 months ago
    If we define America as its founding principles, it cannot be totalitarian. By definition, it is individualist, and the primary role of government is the protection of rights, which means the power of government must be centralized for that purpose, and for that purpose only.

    When progressives and conservatives speak of the president as "running the country," they are guilty of promoting totalitarian ideas. When libertarians speak of anarchy, they are promoting totalitarian ideas. When all of them promote "saving democracy," they are promoting totalitarian ideas.
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