{"id":291306,"date":"2025-03-31T12:00:49","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T11:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=291306"},"modified":"2025-03-31T06:50:16","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T05:50:16","slug":"why-do-governing-elites-support-harmful-policies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/03\/why-do-governing-elites-support-harmful-policies\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Do Governing Elites Support Harmful Policies?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Otto Dix (1928): Metropolis.<\/p><\/div>\n

Inside the Social, Economic, and Psychological Drivers of Elite-Driven Militarization in Global Politics<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A Perplexing Question<\/strong><\/p>\n

29 Mar 2025\u00a0<\/em>– It\u2019s March 2025, and we find ourselves in a moment when major geopolitical players\u2014from the European Union to the United States\u2014are openly preparing for scenarios that can only be described as catastrophic. For instance, the European Commission, under President Ursula von der Leyen, recently unveiled its White Paper for European Defence \u2013 Readiness 2030<\/em> (source: EC Press Corner<\/a>), which solemnly warns of the pressing need to bolster military capacities in anticipation of a possible large-scale conflict with Russia. With an almost ominous flair, von der Leyen stresses that \u201chistory will not forgive inactivity\u201d (source: t-online coverage<\/a>). Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the \u201cAmerican Dynamism 50\u201d event\u2014where Senator JD Vance voiced concerns about the pitfalls of globalization\u2014provides hypothetical but detailed scenarios of a Chinese incursion into Taiwan by 2027 (source: a16z.com<\/a>). The assumption woven through all these policy briefings is that the U.S. and its allies (or vassals, depending on your perspective) must prepare for war in the near-to-mid future.<\/p>\n

In light of this looming threat narrative that ruling Western elites are constructing, remarks<\/a> by Inspector General of the Bundeswehr Carsten Breuer become much more ominous:<\/p>\n

\u201cDeterrence does not always have to be reactive, it also has active components.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Breuer said the Bundeswehr must quickly become \u201cwar-ready<\/em>\u201d and \u201coperational<\/em>\u201d by 2029. This could only be achieved by continuing to rely on NATO and purchasing weapons from the USA despite the current tensions with Washington. The European arms industry alone would not be able to meet the demand so quickly. Who is threatening whom here? (But this is a question for another article.)<\/p>\n

These developments aren\u2019t mere exercises in strategic forethought; they\u2019re visions of large-scale violence that stand to imperil countless human lives. This begs the question: Why<\/strong> do the governing elites who craft these policies\u2014ostensibly for the benefit of their citizens\u2014chart such destructive courses?<\/p>\n

Historian Richard Sakwa, in various interviews (source: Sakwa on Burning Archives<\/a><\/em>), reminds us that within Western hegemonic liberalism, no alternative framework is tolerated. He paints a picture in which the entire system holds fast to an ossified ideology that demands militarization, strips away social welfare, and normalizes inequality. I\u2019m also reminded of Hauke Ritz, who notes how the U.S.-led West consistently demonstrates an almost reflexive rejection of ideologies at odds with its classical intellectual lineage (source: Hauke Ritz on Ulrike Guerot \/ European Citizen Radio<\/a><\/em>). That lineage, by the way, once considered slavery and stark inequality perfectly normal. In effect, any system that dares to champion robust equality or welfare is swiftly labeled \u201cdangerous\u201d or \u201cimpossible\u201d while, in the same breath, reinforcing militarization as the only \u201crational\u201d defense of a single, unyielding worldview.<\/p>\n

Yet to say \u201cit\u2019s just ideology\u201d is too simplistic. My aim here is to draw together threads from the material, ideological, economic, social, and psychological realms in hopes of explaining how these elites rationalize and sustain policies that ultimately hurt large swaths of the population. Consider this a guided tour through the often opaque labyrinth of power structures, group dynamics, and self-fulfilling prophecies. These are my thoughts as a social scientist\u2014not<\/strong> definitive pronouncements, but rather reflections I hope will spur deeper inquiry and broader dialogue.<\/p>\n

A Personal Anecdote: Witnessing an Elite Worldview<\/strong><\/div>\n

TO CONTINUE READING Go to Original – themindness.substack.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

29 Mar 2025 – Inside the Social, Economic, and Psychological Drivers of Elite-Driven Militarization in Global Politics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":291307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[1817,1778,2462,109],"class_list":["post-291306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","tag-anti-militarism","tag-conflict-analysis","tag-military-industrial-media-complex","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291306"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":291308,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291306\/revisions\/291308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}