The “Deep State”

The “Deep State” in America is defined as the “military/industrial complex”, or as “corporate America + the National Security State”.

The point Mike Lofgren, who in the YouTube clip below is being interviewed by Bill Moyers, makes is that these forces are endangering democracy and eroding civil liberties.  He says that this “invisible labyrinth of power” is composed of elected and non-elected members, who more or less carry on with their machinations from one government to another.

There is no conspiracy, he says, more of a “deep ideology” among “the grey men” behind the politicians (although they pretend they are “neutral servants of the state”) that favour deregulation, outsourcing, financialisation of the economy (i.e., de-industrialisation) and what he calls “American exceptionalism abroad” which he defines as “boots on the ground everywhere and our right to meddle everywhere in the world”.

Lofgren used to be a Republican.  He left the Republican Party after becoming uneasy about the “Deep State”.

He managed to break through what he calls “Group Think”.  This he defines as the “assimilation of the views of your superiors and your peers”. 

Upton Sinclair is quoted: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it”.

He is obviously not a socialist, and does not mention capitalism at all.  But – he seems to understand that “something is rotten in the state of Denmark” and he shows outrage at the fact that just up the road from where he is being interviewed, a restaurant is selling truffles at $95,000 apiece and that a painting has been sold at Christie’s for 142 million dollars – while the American infrastructure is struggling to cope, and untold millions are dependent on food stamps.

What interests me, and perhaps gives me a little bit of hope, is that this person, who in spite of being in a relatively privileged position, and in spite of “Group Think”, managed to break free and start thinking for himself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYS647HTgks