Noam Chomsky - Turning the Tide U.S. intervention in

The Race to Destruction
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
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Pentagon appears to understand the true implications,” Reich continues:
“The campaign has been touted in Congressional hearings as a path to
competitiveness in advanced technologies.” National economic policy
management and subsidy to advanced technology through the Pentagon
is of course nothing new, he notes, but “the problem is never before
have we entrusted so much technological development to the Pentagon
in so short a time,” raising questions about allocation of scientific
resources, secrecy which will limit development and commercial
applications, and so on. 87 Business leaders understand the true
implications no less than the Pentagon, and those who hope to be in on
the take have correspondingly expressed much enthusiasm for Star
Wars.
The director of resource management at SDI’s Pentagon office notes
that “80% of our money is going to the private sector,” a fact
appreciated by business at home and abroad. “Almost no cutting-edge
technology will go without a shot of new research funds” in this vast
program of state subsidy to private enterprise, Business Week observes
cheerily. 88 Business enthusiasm for the Star Wars program is therefore
quite understandable, as is the fact that SDI did not arise from military
demands.
Nor is it surprising that the SDI program is pursued regardless of the
threats it poses to survival. Planning in business and government is
short-range; the long-term threats are someone else’s concern. This is to
be expected in a competitive society where those who do not devote
themselves to short-term advantage are unlikely to be in the competition
in the long run. The widely-heard argument that Star Wars and other
advanced weapons programs are irrational, even lunatic, may be correct
from the point of view of people concerned with survival, but in the
framework of business and state managers, they are quite rational.
There has always been a kind of love-hate relation between business