Military Industry is Indispensable

And is the driver of scientific/technological progress and societal prosperity

Russia's war in Ukraine is only the beginning. The world is entering an era of turmoil that will bring about generational changes that are likely to last for centuries. We're probably at the beginning of something like the 17th century's Thirty Years' War or the last century's two world wars. We cannot afford to bury our heads in the sand about this. Those who enter and navigate these turbulent times well prepared and with the right mindset will triumph in the end. They will be able to rule and thrive in the new post-war world order that awaits us.

An important prerequisite for success in such times of upheaval is a strong military with good fighting capabilities, which is predicated upon first and foremost the weapons it possesses. It is therefore necessary to put to rest once and for all the notion, peddled by the pseudo-pacifist left, that the arms industry is somehow evil or immoral. Such drivel is deliberately promoted by those who hate the West and our civilisation.

In earlier times, the peaceful peoples who chose to contemplate, create and advance civilisation were always in a vulnerable position against invading barbarians driven by war and conquest. Defending against invasion required constant vigilance and the diversion of precious energy from creative endeavours to warfare. Of course, it also meant losing the best men on the battlefield - i.e., the strongest, the most daring, the most creative men, who would otherwise be the main driving force of their society. Thus, for civilised cultures, war has always meant the depletion of their precious gene pool.

Modern technology has changed this state of affairs, however. And that's where military-industrial complex comes in. With the help of military technology, the nations/peoples who have chosen to create and contemplate, rather than to invade and destroy, can now gain the upper hand over those who have chosen the latter. A strong defence industry and military-industrial complex now enables civilised nations to ensure their security by harnessing the same creative talent that provides them with their wealth and prosperity. In other words, military industry essentially links the achievement of military strength with civilisational progress to the same creative character traits, which was not possible in earlier times.

A common argument used by opponents of investment in the military-industrial complex and the expansion of the defence industry is that it will divert valuable resources from civilian infrastructure, science, technology and other social programmes. But this is far from the truth.

Many of the technological inventions that make our lives easier and without which we cannot imagine our everyday lives were, in fact, first developed by the military, or otherwise made for military purposes, only to be later redirected to civilian needs.

For example, the first programmable digital computer was actually developed in the UK during the Second World War to help break the German ENIGMA code, which enabled encrypted messages. The technology was later adopted to enable the PC revolution.

The forerunner of the modern Internet was invented by the US Department of Defense to facilitate communication between different computer networks. GPS was also originally developed for military navigation and later made available for civilian use. And many of the technologies used in digital imaging were developed with military applications in mind, for example to provide better imaging technology for spy satellites.

Moreover, although nuclear technology is perhaps most infamously known for its military uses, the underlying technology has been adapted for civilian use in nuclear power plants.

The silicon chip, which is the backbone of almost every piece of technology in our everyday lives, was invented and developed in the late 1950s under military contracts. The early growth and rapid development of silicon-based semiconductor technology was driven by military requirements. And more generally, the broader technology ecosystem that gave rise to Silicon Valley was heavily shaped by military needs.

Even such simple everyday items as canned food and duct tape were originally invented for military purposes. Canned food was developed in the early 19th century to feed the troops of Napoleon's army. Duct tape was developed during the Second World War to seal ammunition boxes and make them waterproof.

This list is not exhaustive, and there are many more examples of scientific research and inventions originally made for military purposes that have later been redirected for civilian needs and have changed our lives for the better. The argument of the pseudo-pacifist opponents of military industry is therefore flawed and rather superficial.

Financial resources and creative and intellectual energy devoted to military technology are not, in fact, diverted from civilian needs and the creation of prosperity for the civilian population. On the contrary, military technology contributes to and is inseparable from the general progress of society. Many great discoveries, the fruits of which we enjoy today, were made in times of distress, and, as we’ve seen, were initially intended for military purposes.

An urgent existential need is a far more powerful incentive for discovery, and thus for improving living standards and achieving prosperity, than any desire to achieve perceived 'social justice' or, rather, to correct any perceived 'social injustice' that the Left might come up with.

The way forward for Western countries should therefore be, first and foremost, to abandon the false dichotomy between 'military' and 'civilian'. These two spheres should not be pitted against each other, but should function in unison. They should be viewed holistically as integral parts of a unified whole. In particular, the notion of science & technology being either military or civilian should disappear.

Accordingly, the concept of military science academies must be revived and made the cornerstone of research and development. The entire higher education system should be restructured around this concept, reorganising the existing scientific institutions and academic structures into holistic military-civilian academies where students are trained and research is conducted with this holistic approach.

Such an approach will be particularly important for Ukraine to implement in its post-war reconstruction. This would allow it to become a militarized society with a mighty military with weapons of its own production, which is indispensable for it to survive and thrive in its current predicament, without the pitfalls such a militarization might entail for the civilian society. In this way, the growth of military power will be closely linked to the improvement of civilian infrastructure and the standard of living of the population.

Contrary to what left-wing pseudo-intellectuals will tell you, and contrary to what is now the perceived wisdom in Western society, the main driver of human action is not the attainment of comfort and prosperity.

Rather, from time immemorial, the main driving force for human beings has been the desire to dominate over others, what Nietzsche called the "will to power". This is why Westerners, among other things, have often been wrong about Russia and the attitudes of Russians, especially when it comes to the impact of economic sanctions on Russian society.

It was thought that economic hardship, the decline in living standards caused by these sanctions, would make Russians abandon their aggressive expansionist attitude towards their neighbours (and the West in general) and turn against their own government instead.

But this has not happened. What has been lost on Western policymakers is that Russians have a different modus operandi that post-industrial Western society, in its decadence and hedonism, apparently cannot perceive and cannot even fathom that it can possibly guide human behaviour.

Unlike Westerners, Russians still possess that primeval instinct of "will to power", which certainly gives them an edge in their confrontation with the West. Therefore, economic hardship is unlikely to turn them against their government or dissuade them from waging war against Ukraine or other countries in the future.

The West has lost its "will to power", that primeval instinct to rule and dominate over others. Not only that, but modern Western society openly scorns and pathologizes this healthy and natural human drive. People with a confrontational attitude are shunned and vilified.

The good news for us, however, is that the rise of modern technology has brought about a paradigm shift. Now people who have lost their primal barbaric instincts, or who don't want to act on them, can have dominion over others, or at least protect themselves from others, through the use of technology, using their intelligence and hard work. With the use of modern technology we have the opportunity to protect ourselves, even to prevail against barbarians, without succumbing to barbarism ourselves.

We may have long lost our primeval barbaric instincts, but we can attain all their benefits through reason and science, which enable us to deconstruct, rationally understand and model those instincts. This is essentially the powerful paradigm shift that modern science & technology offer to civilized nations.

It follows, then, that an advanced and well-funded military-industrial complex is in the best interests of those very decadent pacifists who self-righteously castigate it in the first place. It is their protector and the surest guarantee that they can continue to wallow in insouciance and hedonism untroubled. They may have lost their healthy primal instincts, but if they still possess an ounce of rationality at least they should not prevent others from regaining the competitive advantages of those primal instincts through science and technology.

Therefore, those in the West who argue against defence spending and the military-industrial complex in general do so either out of sheer ignorance, lack of rational thinking, or out of a conscious malevolent intent to make us weaker and end up on the losing side. Western economies will not collapse because of increased military spending brought about by a new arms race. It will be our enemies like Russia and China that will collapse if a new arms race starts. It must be remembered that one of the main reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union was its inability to keep up with advanced American technology during the arms race of the 1980s. Both the West (especially the United States) and the Soviet Union increased their military spending significantly. While this may have caused some minor (if any) distress to the US economy, it caused the total collapse of the Soviet economy.

The Western world, with its precious human capital and technological potential, is guaranteed to prevail in any confrontation with its enemies, provided we deal with our internal enemies who are degrading us from within and do not succumb to their self-righteous, manipulative shaming tactics aimed at prostrating us before those who wish to see us destroyed.