War / mobilisation / stacks
Random notes
The new industrial aristocracy does not need World War Three to happen. It needs World War Three to remain plausible.
Peace makes them vendors. Threat makes them organs of the state.
The monster must stay near the city. Not eat the city. Just near enough that the city keeps paying the monster-tamers.
Permanent mobilisation is not war. It is war as business environment.
Is this unique to this moment? There does seem to be something particularly sinister about the contemporary version but can’t quite identify why.
Generally agree. I think the recent announcement of the Defence bank anchored by Canada, Turkey and others, is connected to the points you mentioned above, as indicative of the explicit use of financial leverage to fund defence i.e. war. And trends come and go, but institutions like this endure and there must be a reason for their existance, so they will endure even if the threat of war (hopefully) recedes. We continue to move into choppy waters.