Published 2008-01-01 by Shirley Farlinger in Peace |

The Powers of Empire

Many of today’s woes stem from systems which could be called “Empire”. The first step in freeing ourselves from military, economic and cultural domination is to define the factors that keep us under the thumb of what we see as Empire. If is looks like Empire, if it sounds like Empire, if it feels like Empire what else would we call it? One of the defining characteristics of Empire today is the possession of nuclear weapons the ultimate tool of Empire.

The development of the first nuclear weapon was a difficult undertaking. It involved years of research, thousands of people and millions of dollars. From the beginning the Manhattan Project proceeded under a strict rule of secrecy. When the two types of nuclear bombs were ready in 1945 the war against Japan was almost over. A test at Alamogordo was “successful” and the bombing went ahead quickly in spite of the objections of scientists and others. Secrecy had kept the objectors to a minimum. As part of the war effort, the victory over Hitler and the culture of patriotism, the bomb was accepted as a weapon of war. The deaths of those in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were deemed necessary to save US lives that would have been lost in an invasion of Japan. The scientific evidence of the effects of the bombs and especially of the radiation was also kept secret. US doctors observed but didn’t help the victims. At the same time the ally, the USSR was intimidated in case it was also looking to take over Japan. These events laid the foundation for the culture of war and the ethos of Empire.

Strike hard, reduce the chance of retaliation, keep the technology as secret as possible, offer no help to the enemy, destroy the infrastructure, ruin the economy and be ready to spend unlimited sums of money. Do not trust others not even your allies.

For an Empire to maintain its hold on power it must have total support from its own population. This requires a propaganda machine, subservient media and a cooperative education system. In addition the people must be afraid of enemies and the enemies must be afraid of the Empire. Ever since Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear weapons have been a source of fear. Touted as the Mutual Assured Destruction doctrine this has been the thread we have hung onto to act as a deterrent to nuclear war. This argument has not been lost on other countries hungry for power and influence. So nuclear weapons have spread to more and more countries. What else could we expect? Canada has tried to deny any culpability in the nuclear arms race, claiming to have chosen not to be a nuclear power. However with the largest uranium mines in the world with international exports we are not guiltless.

There is a paradox here. Nuclear weapons research and deployment sited must be kept secret (“we neither confirm of deny”) it is important that enemies be intimidated into submission by these arms. So India and Pakistan develop their nukes separately (with Canada’s help) in secret in order to scare each other. So far they have had sense enough not to use them. They seem to be useful however as a threat and a symbol of God -like power.

The possession of nuclear weapons has been a justification for building up and using “conventional” weapons. Here the distinction is blurred with the use of weapons with depleted uranium. Of course in Empire the long-lasting harm of DU must be denied.

It must also be vigorously denied that nuclear weapons have any connection with nuclear power. Power “too cheap to meter” turns out to be expensive, dangerous, dirty and with the unsolvable problem of dealing with nuclear waste. Only the willfully blind can miss the connection,

Nuclear disarmament advocates have struggled against the ongoing buildup of nuclear weapons as the old ones are replaced with new more accurate, deadlier ones. Are nuclear armed countries any safer? No, they do not appear to be any safer, say than Canada which has rejected the weapons. In fact more and more areas of the planet are becoming nuclear weapons free zones with the Middle East and the Arctic as the latest attempts. Yet the possession of nuclear weapons continues to one indicator of Empirical power.

Another indicator is economic. The use of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund as well as trade agreement and free market ideology has rendered the two-thirds world poor and powerless. Control of money through these financial instruments is also a form of Empire.

The country with the highest military expenditures should have faced bankruptcy long ago. It may be happening now as a recession is forecast for the US. Global creditors may tire of propping up the nuclear spendthrift and bring it down. Does nuclear military might play a role here?

Perhaps the creditor countries worry that the demise of the US as the banker to the world would cause too much damage to all countries. Better to remain allies. Yet the US will be hard put to maintain its control of multinational companies which now are truly international with global shareholders. The attempts to retain control can be seen in the imposition of free market economics on all countries. This has enhanced the wealth of the elites but has caused suffering for most of the poor who struggle to exist on one or two dollars a day. The resistance to globalization, a tool of Empire, will continue to grow.

So to oppose Empire we need to reject the illogic of nuclear weapons, stop selling military products to militaristic countries, stop research on projects which harms people, get out of the nuclear business including uranium mining and CANDU reactors, and stop our support for those economic policies that are so detrimental to people and the environment.

It may be that climate change will help. We cannot continue to fund wars and fight each other when we all face a common threat – climate catastrophe.

As church people we are called upon to work on all these issues as they are all connected.

[ Peace | ]