War is politics. The Military-Industrial Complex is one of the products from the State of Total Mobilization. When it became apparent that industrialization had military implications, nations began to field massive armies and navies from the 19th century onward. The early 20th century in particular saw mass production enables the conduct of modern warfare, as characterized by the two World Wars. Prior to the 20th century, war was understood to be tests of national resolve and feats of heroic daring. While such values have no doubt been able to persist long after the 20th century, the two World Wars alone had revealed another downside of the State of Total Mobilization. Now, combat resembles a wholesale slaughter of manpower and infrastructure the likes of which have horrified the Totalities that experienced it.
The mass production paradigm of the Military-Industrial Complex in recent decades has since wavered due to changes within the broader Manufacturing Sector. The shift from mass production to mass customization after the Death of Bretton Woods resulted in entire Military-Industrial Complexes reorienting their capabilities. The end of the Cold War, that latter half of the Second World War, did witness a change in the conduct of modern warfare. Nowadays, it is difficult to envisage how a nation, even a large one, could sustain a long-term war effort without relying on superior firepower through overreliance on Technology. How the Military-Industrial Complex conducts itself, especially whether the Totality of any nation has any influence on the production processes of weapons in peacetime, depends on whether it operates under Production for Profit, Production for Utility, and Production for Dasein.
An Arms Race of Military-Industrial Complexes
In Production for Profit, the Military-Industrial Complex generates Kapital from transactional sales of armaments and ordnance to the Parliament, followed by security and police forces and then the civilians under current firearms legislation. The Military-Industrial Complex is about as integrated into the Market as it can be within the legal parameters of a Market/Mixed Economy. Parliament awards contracts to armaments manufacturers to develop and produce weapons for its military as part of its own contributions to the Empire of Liberty. If the Liberal Capitalist nation in question is also a member-state of NATO aligned with the Empire of Liberty, its Parliament is supposed to be spending 2% of their annual Gross Domestic Product on their Military-Industrial Complex. In practice, however, the Empire of Liberty has been defended by the Americans and more specifically the Jeffersonians that helped usher it into existence.
The Military-Industrial Complex under Production for Profit is predominantly comprised of privatized commercial firms that collaborate with the armed forces of Parliament. This relationship has witnessed a proliferation of privatized commercial firms that are contracted to supplement the armed forces. With personnel consisting of former members of the armed forces they serve alongside, these “Private Military Contractors (PMCs)” have become increasingly prominent in recent decades. The operations of most PMCs are distinct from those of Mercenaries, whose presence in the Empire of Liberty is less pronounced than it was in the previous century.
Concerns about war profiteering and governance of the Military-Industrial Complex in the wake of the First World War had resulted in Production for Utility devising its own conception of the Military-Industrial Complex. Similar to the Military-Industrial Complexes under Production for Profit, the ones under Production for Utility are given greater oversight by the Parliament. Here, the purpose of a Military-Industrial Complex is to produce the armaments and ordnance required by the armed forces with minimal considerations for the Profit Motive or any of the distinctive characteristics found in Production for Profit.
One notable trait is a reduced presence of privatized commercial firms and PMCs supplementing or supporting the armed forces. Instead, the armed forces actively control the Armaments Industry, manufacturing the ordnance and hardware that would be required for its own purposes. Parliament also maintains oversight over the Military-Industrial Complex in Production for Utility as it would in Production for Profit, except its ability to influence the Military-Industrial Complex is more direct and impacted by how much Kapital can be allocated to the armed forces.
Yet one cannot help but wonder whether the Civil Society of a Liberal Capitalist nation actually has enough oversight over the Military-Industrial Complex through the Market in Production for Profit or the Parliament in Production for Utility. Unlike other economic activities, the ones found in the Military-Industrial Complex are not influenced by the spending habits of Civil Society. Armaments sold to civilians are not necessarily the same as those sold to a military. Sometimes, the Parliament may not see eye to it with Civil Society regarding how much Kapital is being allocated toward the Military-Industrial Complex. The political process of Parliamentary Democracy tends to be too formalistic and procedural to foster the civil-military relations, especially since the armed forces are not represented in any meaningful way outside of a purely bureaucratic function of Parliament.
Lastly, in Production for Dasein, the Military-Industrial Complex recognizes why wars have been waged and will continue to be fought, even among the nations of a Socialist World Order. The Political Organization Problem influences its decision-making because there are real people with Vocations devoted to the production of weapons for the armed forces and self-defense equipment for all law-abiding citizens. War itself demands a distinct form of Arbeit and Geld where both the State and Totality must wield full Command Responsibility as part of their Right to Military Sovereignty, the power to control the size and composition of their Armed Forces.
As with politics, economics and finance, the conduct of war shall be redefined to suit a more Socialistic form of combat with the Work-Standard. Regardless of whether there is the threat of war or a real war, the Socialist Nation must never deviate from the vast majority of its Arbeit and Geld toward armaments production. If the Military-Industrial Complex can build the biggest arsenals in the world, the VCS Economy and the Reciprocal-Reserve Banking System should also be able to sustain themselves, the State and the Totality in particular. Everyone needs to live within their own means of production in peacetime; the Socialist Nation must be capable of doing the same in wartime.
There must be Sustainability in the Quality of guns and butter produced and the Frequency for those same guns and butter. In a functioning Council Democracy, the Totality holds political and economic sway over how much of their Arbeit and Geld should be devoted toward national defense spending. They have every political-economic right to demand their State Delegates inside the State Council of their State to hold the Armaments and Energy Industries accountable. If the Totality can afford weapons and ammunition under the Work-Standard, we should be able to afford a single loaf of bread and some butter at our local grocery. The Totality should even be able to afford refrigerators, computers, electronics, automobiles, and all the other everyday appliances. They should also not be queuing in long lines and finding empty store shelves because the Armed Forces is needlessly spilling blood in their name.
On Armaments and Energy Production
In the VCS Economy, the Armaments and Energy Industries constitute the Military-Industrial Complex. It is not under the jurisdiction of the Ministries of Economics and Finance, even though they do tend to create Actual Arbeit and Actual Geld during peacetime and only Military Arbeit and Military Geld in wartime. It is also not under the Ministries of War, Intelligence, and Justice, the Socialist Student Economy (SSE), or even the People’s Party, and its paramilitaries, which has happened to be the case of Production for Utility. Those Industries fall under the Command Responsibility of Ministry of Energy & Armaments Production.
The Armaments Production half of the Ministry manufactures weapons for the General Staff at the Ministry of War and has licensed gunsmiths devoted to creating weapons for civilians and police. This side is in close communications with the State Commissariats of Wages and Prices on setting the scales of “Military Arbeit” produced by the armed forces within the Socialist Nation and the “Military Geld” that the Ministry itself is generating for the Life-Energy Reserve.
It also has whole battalions of military scientists, engineers, technical and research staff working at well-respected government institutions dedicated to military research and development as their Vocations. The students from the SSE at the Ministry of Education are allowed to join the professionals with the express approval of their parents (if aged between 16 and 17 years) or with the signed authorization from a state commissar as part of their Vocation (aged between 17 and 34 years). All arrangements, including the students’ room and board, are administered by “Group D” of a Kontor’s Office VI (“Priority Requisition”).
The other half, the Energy Production side, is responsible for the Socialist Nation’s power plants and electrical substations, hydroelectric dams, fuel refineries, and the military’s logistical system and their associated logistical systems. It oversees the production of strategic resources like synthetic fuel, rubber, plastics and fabrics. It is also the authority that decides whether the Socialist nation should begin rationing those resources in wartime conditions. Ministerial procurement of natural resources for the Energy and Armaments Industries are coordinated by Office III (“Equipmentalities”) of all Kontore. Office III sells the raw materials as Equipmentalities in bulk. Only in wartime is the Ministry of Armaments & Energy Production allowed to be given first priority before the Ministries of Economics and Finance.
On Military Technology
Total Mobilization has given every nation, including our own, the Technology bestowed to humanity by the Figure of the Arbeiter. Production for Dasein, unlike Production for Profit and Production for Utility, recognizes that the Arbeiter’s Technology is capable of inflicting untold levels of destruction. The effects can be seen ricocheting across time and space, affecting future generations. Modern warfare tends to leave physical and psychological scars on military personnel and the environment. Militaries around the world have grown to recognize the risks of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) since it historically appeared as “Shellshock” during the First World War. The environmental scars, however, are even worse because the whole world is affected.
There are untold numbers of UXOs (Unexploded Ordnance), explosives that failed to detonate and are simply left on the ground long after a conflict. A decades-old UXO could be waiting to go off beneath the city street in front of somebody’s apartment building, demolishing the surrounding walls and killing anyone caught in the blast radius. There may even be a more recent UXO, dropped from an enemy bomber and burrowed into land that was later redeveloped as a farm, a ranch, or even a children’s playground. Neither the farmers and ranchers nor their children will be aware of the dangers until it is too late.
There are buried landmines which have been forgotten and still active in the countryside of certain countries. Anyone who haplessly steps on them are going to get their legs blown off. In some places, it is going to be long ambulance ride before they make it to the nearest hospital. Only a few nations are capable of manufacturing landmines, yet nobody really knows how many are still left in the ground and even mapped their precise locations in some cases.
There are sunken warships and merchant vessels full of military munitions and equipment, left to decay and turn to artificial reefs for aquatic life. Some of these ships were carrying petroleum inside their cargo holds. The ship in question had been designed well-enough to allow the Petroleum to begin seeming out of their barrels and into the oceans. Worse, there have also been a number of seamines from World War II that have been found drifting in the water, ready to blow up a civilian cruise ship or even a merchant tanker ship carrying lots of Petroleum.
And there are even chemical weapon stockpiles that have been carelessly disposed of by opposing forces in the immediate cessation of hostilities. Such chemical weapons can potentially seep out of their shells, releasing deadly agents capable of killing local wildlife and rendering the surrounding area uninhabitable for both animals and humans. Then there is the infamous “Agent Orange” deployed by US military planes during the Vietnam War, which has caused permanent damage and cancers to friendly and enemy forces alike. Today, there are international treaties forbidding the manufacturing, stockpiling and deployment of chemical weapons in combat.
These are just several examples of the number of problems which our Military-Industrial Complex must be able to come to terms with. If the Socialist Nation is capable of spending a massive arsenal of such potentially dangerous weapons, it should also be able to develop ways of healing the scars of war. Not just provide adequate healthcare for those affected by PTSD, but also combat the environmental damage created by modern warfare. The Socialist Nation must be willing to sign and enforce international treaties related to the production of chemical and biological weapons, with the hope of eventually addressing the problem of nuclear weapons. Unlike chemical and biological weapons, the LIEO (Liberal International Economic Order) were never able to resolve the issue of nuclear proliferation, especially when it came to understanding why nations pursue any nuclear program.
Why should any nation spend obscene amounts of Geld on a nuclear program under the Work-Standard? What is the Intent behind the decision? Is it because of a need to find a better source of energy for producing electrical power? Is it because of a need to deter neighboring nations from attacking them? Is it because the nation in question is interested in closing the nuclear fuel cycle? Or is it following up on the Noosphere research of Soviet biogeochemist Vladimir Vernadsky and French philosopher Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ, and figuring out whether nuclear energy is the missing alchemical link behind creating the “Philosopher’s Stone?”
The first motive is driven by concerns over cleaner sources of energy, the second by historical enmities, the third by the pursuit of Autarky, and the fourth suspicious and outright eccentric. The fourth motive in particular is probably unrelated to the other three, deserving a few periodic visits from international nuclear inspectors sent by the World State Organization (WSO).
As outlandish as this may sound, it is known among scientists for decades that one can theoretically turn one base metal into another base metal. The only real problem is whether anyone has been able to implement it on an industrial scale. Any Military-Industrial Complex is more than welcome to prove the existence of the Noosphere. However, this Author remains confident that the Totality of any nation (be it Liberal Capitalist or Socialist) would be more interested in devoting much of its efforts toward more practical endeavors.
Prelude to Financial Warfare
Returning from the sensational to the cold reality back on Earth, the Compendium has yet to provide a serious investigation into the Work-Standard’s relationship with the emerging concept of “Financial Warfare.” It has been proffered by all kinds of people since the 20th century that various countries around the world had accidently discovered the dark arts of financial combat throughout World Wars I and II. Everyone senses and perceives the concept of Financial Warfare in Political Science, Economics and Finance, but nobody on Earth has yet to comprehend the concept from the standpoint of Military Science. Since Financial Warfare has yet to be taken seriously, the implications that it presents to the Work-Standard is a topic which cannot be ignored.
The SMP Compendium has provided some anecdotal evidence based on the subsequent sophistication of Fintech (Financial Technology) that coincided with the Death of Bretton Woods in the 1970s. I have also argued that it may be related to degeneration of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries and their eventual collapse in 1989, 1990, and 1991. By revisiting the Cold War from a counterfactual perspective with the Work-Standard, we can finally begin to make sense of the Holocaust, the tales of Nazi and Japanese Gold, counterfeit gold-backed bearer bonds, Petrodollars, financial contagions, secret offshore accounts. More importantly, the SMP Compendium can even argue that the Y2K Bug, Dot-Com Bubble, 9/11, and Great Recession all contributed to the economic and financial problems plaguing the Western world in the 2010s.
In the next part of this Entry in the SMP Compendium, we will be exploring in great detail about why the Work-Standard is related to Financial Warfare, including its historical precedent, its feasibility, and its implications. When the Totality of a Socialist Nation begins to live within its own means of production, everyone will slowly realize why their own Technology must be imbued with a shared set of cultural and traditional values.
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