Militarism's Killing Fields: From Gaza to Ferguson

Abstract

Militarization and a military definition of life and culture have become normalized in the United States. This article explores the ways in which a military metaphysics has become the new normal for a nation not only at war abroad but also at home, especially with regards to the ongoing assaults waged by the state against youth, immigrants, and poor minorities of class and color. Not only has militarization produced and celebrated an aggressive and warrior-like mode of masculinity, it has imposed a surveillance state, devalued democratic citizenship and subordinated a respect for public values, the common good and democracy to the military ideals, values, and social relations. This article explores how the United States has moved from a culture of militarism, which was limited to the military values associated with the military, to a more pervasive culture of militarization, with its belief in force and violence as a dominant mediating and structuring force for the whole of social life. This is a military metaphysics that not only produces material violence, it also produces a military culture rooted in blind obedience, aggression, conformity, and war-like values. As the neoliberal state relies less on ideology and more on force, the punishing state becomes the hallmark of American society. This suggests at one level that neoliberal states can no longer justify and legitimate their exercise of ruthless power and its effects under casino capitalism. Instead, the state no longer attempts to produce consensus, but on reproducing a culture of fear, surveillance, and punishment.