Great Question

One of the writers I’m following most closely these days is Patrick Smith at Salon.  There are multiple reasons for that, but one is that I’m intrigued by the perception of members of a society that is off the rails when they are in the moment. It is one thing for us to look back in history at, say, the declining Roman empire, or even to look in the moment from a distance, as Americans did at fascist Italy. But what is the collective capacity of the members of that society to grasp the enormity of the moment, when they are in it?

To that end, Smith asks this question in his piece from Sunday,  God won’t save us: Memorial Day, honest history and our new military-industrial complex:

I term it “the silent coup.” The thought comes as a question, not a thesis. Has our great country undergone a shift in power such that those at the very top of our defense, intelligence and security apparatuses are beyond civilian control and act autonomously in our names? Has “of the people, by the people, for the people” been replaced by “to the people?” Add to this list the senior echelons of management at corporations whose operations relate to these functions of government, and you have the question in full.

Shortened version of the above: Who is in charge in this country now, whose fingers are on the levers, and in the service of whom?

For those interested, read the whole thing, but I must share the closing lines:

“History is something that happens to other people,” Toynbee once wrote in describing the prewar English consciousness. The English learned otherwise and are better off. We will and will be, too.