The Temple of Military Industrial Complex and Union of Two Powers

President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his farewell address of 1961 was the first to express concern about the impact of “an immense military establishment and a large arms industry” which he noted was “new in American experience”. He alerted councils of governments, saying that “we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.’ As a result of Eisenhower’s speech, over the past few decades, the Military Industrial-Complex [MIC] has become a phrase used by researchers and political commentators, to describe a complex web of connections, pervading the state and industrial apparatus. This includes the military, the Pentagon, politicians, defence contractors, and large corporations that profit from, or contribute to war efforts. This episode begins by tracing the initial thread of thoughts which instigated Eisenhower’s farewell address in 1961, starting with the powerful Defence Industrial Base. Subsequently the ideological origins of the MIC are considered by tracing it to the anti-war movement during the 1930s, later manifested as two theories the “Merchants Of Death” and the “War Economy” thesis. The development of the Military Industrial Complex is then charted as it fluctuated throughout the latter half of the 20th century; declining from the late 1980s and then rising at the beginning of the 2000s mainly because, the end of the Cold War saw profound changes in the international security environment. The episode continues by examining the growth of the MIC and also exploring various key components of the MIC. This includes the following areas; 1.) The influence of the mainstream corporate media. In particular, how in the modern era, of unbridled mergers and acquisitions, the power and influence of the new age of media, is strictly under the control, of a handful of conglomerated corporations, reflecting an oligarchic market structure. 2.) The “revolving door” referring to the back and forth exchange of top officials, between the government, the pentagon, and various companies which do business with both sectors. In particular, the movement of former government officials who join the defence industry as executives, lobbyists, or other positions raising issues of abuse of power. In addition there are highlighted examples of how the MIC was applied to the Iraq war in 2003. 3.) The influence of think tanks; 4. Big Tech companies such as Google and Facebook and how their market practices have exacerbated an already highly concentrated media industry. This analysis leads us to examine the implications, of the extreme consolidation of media power, as well as the crossover of Big Tech companies into areas of civilian surveillance as part of the vastly expanded and constantly changing Military Industrial Complex.