Greg+Silva+-+Week+12

Scientists, unfortunately, do not call the shots for mighty nation states or corporations because these decisions, while practical and logical (at least for their makers), do not contribute to any future knowledge whatsoever and do not, therefore, fall in the realm of science.

Through the second half of the twentieth century (and the first decade of the twenty-first), America has not given heed to Dwight D. Eisenhower’s warning that “we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist” (Eisenhower). The consequences of the military-industrial complex’s rising power have become abundantly evident since his farewell address in 1961. Until 1991, such power was granted under the guise of protecting the American way of life from the supposedly atheistic, pervasive, aggressive Soviet Communism – all grossly exaggerated and oversimplified by propaganda to prop up support for the growing American arms industry. After 1991, however, American policy has become even more aggressive; the military-industrial complex (which has grown to include representatives and senators in Congress who know that their vote lies in their ability to get jobs, which includes the defense industry) has resolved itself to assert America’s prominence as the only remaining world superpower by ensuring that American interests can be forced in all corners of the globe. Whether in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, or Latin America, the United States has strong-armed its way into any market it can find so that corporations, with enormous capital reserves and production capable of outmatching any local vendors or organizations in underdeveloped regions, can smother any competition and exploit these regions for sales. To pay for these corporate escapades, the military-industrial complex uses taxpayer dollars and U.S. troops to enforce policy, and the military-industrial complex uses propaganda to ensure that the public believes, regardless of the situation, that American troops are fighting to defend their rights.

This power complex originated in the initial push in the Manhattan Project by the United States to acquire nuclear weapons before Nazi Germany could. The massive government effort, along with the immediate opportunity of military power and looming threat of the Soviet Union (exaggerated, of course, by propaganda), allowed a fledgling defense industry to explode in size and influence. Unfortunately for scientists, the decision for states to leverage their enormous resources and enter and leave wars is not one of science (as it does not lead to any new inferences), but one of pragmatic politics and business – what benefits industry (or the nation) does not necessarily benefit mankind or its knowledge of the world.