Originally posted online in April 2007. Edited.
Britain’s Ministry of Defense has compiled a new report detailing a number of possible “strategic challenges” to consider as the world’s ruling elite struggle to cling to power for a few more decades.
from Guardian Unlimited:
The 90-page report comments on widely discussed issues such as the growing economic importance of India and China, the militarisation of space, and even what it calls “declining news quality” with the rise of “internet-enabled, citizen-journalists” and pressure to release stories “at the expense of facts”. It includes other, some frightening, some reassuring, potential developments that are not so often discussed. [full article]
“The German Ideology,” which set the foundations of Historical Materialism.
According to the study, one of the biggest threats ahead is the resurgence of Marxism as a viable political movement with newfound popular appeal:
“The middle classes could become a revolutionary class, taking the role envisaged for the proletariat by Marx,” says the report. The thesis is based on a growing gap between the middle classes and the super-rich on one hand and an urban under-class threatening social order: “The world’s middle classes might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and skills to shape transnational processes in their own class interest”. Marxism could also be revived, it says, because of global inequality. An increased trend towards moral relativism and pragmatic values will encourage people to seek the “sanctuary provided by more rigid belief systems, including religious orthodoxy and doctrinaire political ideologies, such as popularism and Marxism”.
I would have never thought that the UK Ministry of Defense would publicly acknowledge the validity of Historical Materialism, but there you have it! Leave it to the military-industrial complex to frame the prospective resolution of “global inequities” as a bad thing that must be stopped at all costs, eh?
Here’s my favorite part:
By 2035, an implantable “information chip” could be wired directly to the brain. A growing pervasiveness of information communications technology will enable states, terrorists or criminals, to mobilise “flashmobs”, challenging security forces to match this potential agility coupled with an ability to concentrate forces quickly in a small area.
Captain America Vol. 1 193, January 1976
As a longtime comic book reader, this part of the story rang a bell (or maybe it was an implantable information chip in my brain) and I remembered one of my favorite issues of Captain America from many, many years ago. It was Captain America #193 (January 1976), to be specific and it was one of the first comics I ever acquired for my collection. Back in the early 1980’s, my folks bought me a big stack of Marvel and DC books from the mid 1970’s and #193 one of a handful of Captain America issues in the lot. This particular story was about a fantastic new weapon called “Madbomb” that was used by an underground terrorist group to drive inhabitants of small towns and cities so insane with murderous rage that they would be driven to destroy everything in their midst, including themselves. I’ve scanned a bit from this issue to assist in my brief overview of the tale. In the panels below, a government-type fellow (who introduces himself as “Henny” and bares a striking resemblance to Henry Kissinger) briefs Cap and Falcon on the deadly potential of the Madbomb:
But it gets better… At the issue’s cliffhanger ending, “Henny” reveals that a mysterious terrorist group possesses a Madbomb powerful enough to drive the entire U.S. population insane. And — get this — the detonation of the device is set to coincide with…(pause for dramatic effect)… the U.S. Bicentennial! (gasp!) Now, in the interest of accuracy, it is true that Madbomb is a single, stationary device and in this regard it is slightly different from the implantable microchip idea, but the principle is roughly the same. The “Madbomb” storyline ran for seven issues and for many, many years, #193 was the only issue from the series that I had (I re-read it so much as a kid that it’s virtually in tatters now), but I am sure it’s safe to assume that Cap and Falcon kicked major terrorist ass by the end of the tale. So, while the idea of a Madbomb-like device is more or less straight out of the comics, it’s relatively easy to conclude that such a plot is ultimately flawed.
Captain America and The Falcon come face to face with Henry Kissinger.
According to the comics, it’s an easily defeatable scheme after all… It’s apparent that all the British need to defeat the “flashmob” menace is Henry Kissinger and a couple of super-heroes. Of course, even though Cap and Falcon are fictional characters, Henry Kissinger is all too real… and very effective at that. If you don’t take my word for it, just ask Salvador Allende. And there’s another bright side to all this: Mythbusters recently did a show in which they proved that hypnosis can’t be used to make unwilling victims commit crimes, assaults, and the like. If that holds true for “implantable information chip” technology, then we’re all safe for now. Whew!
Perhaps the most interesting thing here is that if anyone has the capability to build fantastic super-weapons like EMP cannons and mind-control implants, it’s the ruling-class elites and defense ministries of the world. When is someone going to write a study predicting what these folks have in store for the rest of us? And what do you think the reaction from the top echelons would be if the world’s working people did produce such a document — that is, a study predicting wide-scale repression of the world’s masses by ruling elites through extreme force, terrorism, intimidation and psychological warfare? Why, they would surely dismiss it as little more that “conspiracy theory” propaganda from the radical left. But if you pick up a decent history book (and read between the lines a bit), you might be keen enough to see that it’s already happened, time and again. And from there, it’s not too difficult to write your own predictions for the future.
See you when the Madbomb hits!
