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| author | Silvio Rhatto <rhatto@riseup.net> | 2019-09-18 16:03:06 -0300 | 
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| committer | Silvio Rhatto <rhatto@riseup.net> | 2019-09-18 16:03:06 -0300 | 
| commit | ce2698a88be769d39288ee76fe7adcda7d03c974 (patch) | |
| tree | 99d750647125d3c700a7b60eb9fe39795ac5b9be | |
| parent | 996f868f9a58f71f4a6f154812cec1b6529c8dd2 (diff) | |
| download | blog-ce2698a88be769d39288ee76fe7adcda7d03c974.tar.gz blog-ce2698a88be769d39288ee76fe7adcda7d03c974.tar.bz2  | |
Updates sociology
| -rw-r--r-- | books/sociology/counterrevolution.md | 113 | 
1 files changed, 113 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/books/sociology/counterrevolution.md b/books/sociology/counterrevolution.md index 0c0bf1b..6bca18d 100644 --- a/books/sociology/counterrevolution.md +++ b/books/sociology/counterrevolution.md @@ -1748,3 +1748,116 @@ A circular, feedback loop:      system. Second, there was the notion of systematicity that involved a particular      type of method—one that began by collecting a set of promising alternatives,      constructing a model, and using a defined criterion. + +    [...] + +    This method of systems analysis became influential in government and +    eventually began to dominate governmental logics starting in 1961 when Robert +    McNamara acceded to the Pentagon under President John F. Kennedy. + +    [...] + +    According to its proponents, systems analysis +    would allow policy makers to put aside partisan politics, personal preferences, +    and subjective values. It would pave the way to objectivity and truth. As RAND +    expert and future secretary of defense James R. Schlesinger explained: +    “[Systems analysis] eliminates the purely subjective approach on the part of +    devotees of a program and forces them to change their lines of argument. They +    must talk about reality rather than morality.” 13 With systems analysis, +    Schlesinger argued, there was no longer any need for politics or value +    judgments. The right answer would emerge from the machine-model that +    independently evaluated cost and effectiveness. All that was needed was a +    narrow and precise objective and good criteria. The model would then spit out +    the most effective strategy. + +    [...] + +    Counterinsurgency theory blossomed at precisely the moment that systems +    analysis was, with RAND’s backing, gaining influence in the Pentagon and at +    the White House. The historian Peter Paret pinpoints this moment, in fact, to the +    very first year of the Kennedy administration: “In 1961, the Cuban revolution +    combined with the deteriorating Western position in Southeast Asia + +    [...] + +    It convened, as mentioned earlier, the seminal +    counterinsurgency symposium in April 1962, where RAND analysts discovered +    David Galula and commissioned him to write his memoirs. RAND would +    publish his memoirs as a confidential classified report in 1963 under the title + +    [...] + +    Counterinsurgency theory blossomed at precisely the moment that systems +    analysis was, with RAND’s backing, gaining influence in the Pentagon and at +    the White House. The historian Peter Paret pinpoints this moment, in fact, to the +    very first year of the Kennedy administration: “In 1961, the Cuban revolution +    combined with the deteriorating Western position in Southeast Asia to shift + +    [...] + +    One recent episode regarding interrogation +    methods is telling. It involved the evaluation of different tactics to obtain +    information from informants, ranging from truth serums to sensory overload to +    torture. These alternatives were apparently compared and evaluated using a SA +    approach at a workshop convened by RAND, the CIA, and the American +    Psychological Association (APA). Again, the details are difficult to ascertain +    fully, but the approach seemed highly systems-analytic. + +    [...] a series of workshops on “The Science of Deception” + +    [...] + +    More specifically, according to this source, the workshops probed and +    compared different strategies to elicit information. The systems-analytic +    approach is reflected by the set of questions that the participants addressed: How +    important are differential power and status between witness and officer? What +    pharmacological agents are known to affect apparent truth-telling behavior? +    What are sensory overloads on the maintenance of deceptive behaviors? How +    might we overload the system or overwhelm the senses and see how it affects +    deceptive behaviors? These questions were approached from a range of +    disciplines. The workshops were attended by “research psychologists, +    psychiatrists, neurologists who study various aspects of deception and +    representatives from the CIA, FBI and Department of Defense with interests in +    intelligence operations. In addition, representatives from the White House Office +    of Science and Technology Policy and the Science and Technology Directorate +    of the Department of Homeland Security were present.” 31 + +    [...] + +    And in effect, from a counterinsurgency perspective, these various tactics— +    truth serums, sensory overloads, torture—are simply promising alternatives that +    need to be studied, modeled, and compared to determine which ones are superior +    at achieving the objective of the security system. Nothing is off limits. +    Everything is fungible. The only question is systematic effectiveness. This is the +    systems-analytic approach: not piecemeal, but systematic. +    Incidentally, a few years later, Gerwehr apparently went to Guantánamo, but +    refused to participate in any interrogation because the CIA was not using video +    cameras to record the interrogations. Following that, in the fall of 2006 and in +    2007, Gerwehr made several calls to human-rights advocacy groups and +    reporters to discuss what he knew. A few months later, in 2008, Gerwehr died of +    a motorcycle accident on Sunset Boulevard. 32 He was forty years old. + +    [...] + +    Sometimes, depending on the practitioner, the analysis favored torture or summary +    execution; at other times, it leaned toward more “decent” tactics. But these +    variations must now be understood as internal to the system. Under President +    Bush’s administration, the emphasis was on torture, indefinite detention, and +    illicit eavesdropping; under President Obama’s, it was on drone strikes and total +    surveillance; in the first months of the Trump presidency, on special operations, +    drones, the Muslim ban, and building the wall. What unites these different +    strategies is counterinsurgency’s coherence as a system—a system in which +    brutal violence is heart and center. That violence is not aberrational or rogue. It +    is to be expected. It is internal to the system. Even torture and assassination are +    merely variations of the counterinsurgency logic. + +    Counterinsurgency abroad and at home has been legalized and systematized. It +    has become our governing paradigm “in any situation,” and today “simply +    expresses the basic tenet of the exercise of political power.” It has no sunset +    provision. It is ruthless, game theoretic, systematic—and legal. And with all of +    the possible tactics at the government’s disposal—from total surveillance to +    indefinite detention and solitary confinement, to drones and robot-bombs, even +    to states of exception and emergency powers—this new mode of governing has +    never been more dangerous. + +    In sum, The Counterrevolution is our new form of tyranny.  | 
