In advanced modern democratic societies, the war system has provided political
leaders with another political-economic function of increasing importance: it
has served as the last great safeguard against the elimination of necessary social
classes. As economic productivity increases to a level further and further above
that of minimum subsistence, it becomes more and more difficult for a society
to maintain distribution patterns insuring the existence of "hewers of wood and
drawers of water". The further progress of automation can be expected to
differentiate still more sharply between "superior" workers and what Ricardo
called "menials," while simultaneously aggravating the problem of maintaining
an unskilled labor supply.
The arbitrary nature of war expenditures and of other military activities make
them ideally suited to control these essential class relationships. Obviously, if
the war system were to be discarded, new political machinery would be needed
at once to serve this vital subfunction. Until it is developed, the continuance of
the war system must be assured, if for no other reason, among others, than to
preserve whatever quality and degree of poverty a society requires as an
incentive, as well as to maintain the stability of its internal organization of
power.
SOCIOLOGICAL
Under this heading, we will examine a nexus of functions served by the war
system that affect human behavior in society. In general, they are broader in
application and less susceptible to direct observation than the economic and
political factors previously considered.
The most obvious of these functions is the time-honored use of military
institutions to provide antisocial elements with an acceptable role in the social
structure. The disintegrative, unstable social movements loosely described as
"fascist" have traditionally taken root in societies that have lacked adequate
military or paramilitary outlets to meet the needs of these elements. This
function has been critical in periods of rapid change. The danger signals are
easy to recognize, even though the stigmata bear different names at different
times. The current euphemistic clichés--"juvenile delinquency" and "alienation"
-- have had their counterparts in every age. In earlier days these conditions were
dealt with directly by the military without the complications of due process,
usually through press gangs or outright enslavement. But it is not hard to
visualize, for example, the degree of social disruption that might have taken
place in the United States during the last two decades if the problem of the
socially disaffected of the post-World War II period had been foreseen and
leaders with another political-economic function of increasing importance: it
has served as the last great safeguard against the elimination of necessary social
classes. As economic productivity increases to a level further and further above
that of minimum subsistence, it becomes more and more difficult for a society
to maintain distribution patterns insuring the existence of "hewers of wood and
drawers of water". The further progress of automation can be expected to
differentiate still more sharply between "superior" workers and what Ricardo
called "menials," while simultaneously aggravating the problem of maintaining
an unskilled labor supply.
The arbitrary nature of war expenditures and of other military activities make
them ideally suited to control these essential class relationships. Obviously, if
the war system were to be discarded, new political machinery would be needed
at once to serve this vital subfunction. Until it is developed, the continuance of
the war system must be assured, if for no other reason, among others, than to
preserve whatever quality and degree of poverty a society requires as an
incentive, as well as to maintain the stability of its internal organization of
power.
SOCIOLOGICAL
Under this heading, we will examine a nexus of functions served by the war
system that affect human behavior in society. In general, they are broader in
application and less susceptible to direct observation than the economic and
political factors previously considered.
The most obvious of these functions is the time-honored use of military
institutions to provide antisocial elements with an acceptable role in the social
structure. The disintegrative, unstable social movements loosely described as
"fascist" have traditionally taken root in societies that have lacked adequate
military or paramilitary outlets to meet the needs of these elements. This
function has been critical in periods of rapid change. The danger signals are
easy to recognize, even though the stigmata bear different names at different
times. The current euphemistic clichés--"juvenile delinquency" and "alienation"
-- have had their counterparts in every age. In earlier days these conditions were
dealt with directly by the military without the complications of due process,
usually through press gangs or outright enslavement. But it is not hard to
visualize, for example, the degree of social disruption that might have taken
place in the United States during the last two decades if the problem of the
socially disaffected of the post-World War II period had been foreseen and
