The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. Hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. This new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed. In principle the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not victory over Eurasia or East Asia, but to keep the very structure of society intact. –   George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four

We are no longer represented by our elected leaders. They represent hedge fund managers on Wall Street and tech giants in Silicon Valley. They represent the heads of multinational corporations; the banks; the military industrial complex; big pharma; big agriculture; the petroleum industry.

In other words: the One Percent.

They worship money and they love crony capitalism regardless of the rampant greed and financial destruction it has brought to the planet. They worship war – our biggest export – regardless of the death, pain, sorrow, potential blowback or unintended consequences it may unleash.

Let us not forget that the Constitution gave exclusive rights to wealthy white landowners, and forbade those without land, women, Native Americans and Blacks the right to vote.

We slaughtered the Native Americans for their land and their natural resources and we have continued this template of war at the behest of global corporate interests well into the 21st century. We’re told that we are spreading democracy when in fact we are spreading unfettered capitalism and more “free” markets around the globe for evil corporations to exploit.

Americans HATE the poor, the elderly, children, disabled people, veterans, immigrants, women, and the working class.

Americans LOVE corrupt politicians and the sociopathic billionaire oligarchs who own them.

We also love endless, constant WAR. It’s the American way.

The real tragedy is how far we’ve fallen from being anything close to a true democracy or a nation of goodwill, and how we have instead allowed our Constitution to be stripped of all meaning and virtually ignored.

When you have an economy which is invested so heavily in the Military-Industrial-Complex as we do in the United States, endless war becomes a necessity and an enemy simply must be found. Or invented, if need be. War is the main engine of economic growth in America.

The US was born in war and it has never looked back. There has always been some group who needed to be conquered and destroyed, and the people who profit from war and militarism will find an enemy to crush in the defense of “democracy” just about anywhere.

Whether it’s the Native Americans, the British, the Spanish Empire, Communism, or (now) “Global Terrorism,” there has always been a threat to the US which could be sold to the public as justification for having one’s civil rights severely curtailed.

An endless war doesn’t require that we fight the *same* enemy, either, as Orwell pointed out: it only requires that there be an “enemy of the moment.”

Currently, Islam is the enemy of the moment, but that could change in a heartbeat. The lesson to be learned is not that today’s enemy is the “real” enemy. It is simply that there will be a new enemy tomorrow. And a new one after that, and so on and so on…

As long as enough people buy into the lies sold to them by their “protectors” this isn’t going to end well for any of us.

[Repost from 2016]