Chuck Spinney reviews Mike Lofgren's The Deep State

While Lofgren does not say so, I would argue there are growing signs that the emerging American political economy combines many elements of classical fascism and corporatism with neoliberal laissez faire economics into something that is new and peculiarly American — a political economy that exhibits fascist tendencies, but unlike classical fascism, subordinates the state to neoliberal corporatist interests, while it exploits many of fascism’s authoritarian organizing principles to stabilize the emerging status quo. Don’t take my word for it. Read Lofgren’s book, then think about how you would check or redefine the boxes in Figure 2 and draw your own conclusions.

One of the most important aspects of Lofgren's analysis, at least to my thinking, lies in his frequent reminders that the structural aspects of this current state of affairs are not the results of a centrally guided conspiracy hashed out in a smoke filled room. The “structure” of the contemporary American Deep State is more an emergent property triggered by the incremental give and take by thousands of players, whose successes and failures are conditioned by an interplay of chance and necessity, in what is really a cultural evolution. To be sure, there are lots of smoke filled rooms conspiring invisibly to play this game of chance and necessity, but they are competing with each other as well as cooperating -- and it is the evolutionary character of the Deep State that enables it to survive, adapt, and grow on its own terms, and that emergent character is what makes the Deep State so dangerously resistant to change.

The Blaster
Inside the Deep State

Chuck Spinney

I don't know whether Chuck Spinney realizes it, but he is making a strong argument against modern managerial and financial capitalism.

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American elites want to conquer every corner of the globe and make capitalism the one true faith.

Ever since the end of WWII there has been fearful speculation and warnings of a possible Third World War that always seemed just over the horizon; but what people didn’t realize is that WW3 had already begun. An ideological war was fought between the US-led capitalist camp and the USSR-led socialist and anti-imperialist alliance.

Much of this war was waged in secret by the CIA through use of propaganda, psychological warfare, economic sanctions, sabotage, funding and manipulation of political parties, assassinations and coups. This silent Cold War would from time to time break out into major “hot wars” (revolutions and counterrevolutions).

In 1991 WW3 came to an end with the defeat of the Soviet Union and the socialist bloc in eastern Europe. Following Soviet capitulation and defeat, the end of history was declared and President Bush I announced that there would be a new world order – the US would now be the world’s sole “superpower” and usher in a golden era of global capitalism with America at the helm.

WW3 had only just ended when World War 4 took over. The USSR had been defeated, but there was still a lot of work to do. A lot of territory, ideological and geographical, was left unconquered or had to now be consolidated and managed. For one thing, Red China remained, as well as other socialist countries such as Yugoslavia, Cuba and North Korea. The geostrategically and economically vital Middle East was also yet to be fully subdued.…

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World War IV is Happening Now
Joseph Waters | Proletarian Center for Research, Education and Culture (Prole Center)


The National Interest
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