Pentagon preparing for mass civil breakdown

[geomancer]

[severe environmental and economic shocks are anticipated in the future - gotta get ready]

Full article can be found at https://www.theguardian.com/environme...ivil-breakdown

Pentagon preparing for mass civil breakdown

A US Department of Defense (DoD) research programme is funding universities to model the dynamics, risks and tipping points for large-scale civil unrest across the world, under the supervision of various US military agencies. The multi-million dollar programme is designed to develop immediate and long-term "warfighter-relevant insights" for senior officials and decision makers in "the defense policy community," and to inform policy implemented by "combatant commands."

Launched in 2008 – the year of the global banking crisis – the DoD 'Minerva Research Initiative' partners with universities "to improve DoD's basic understanding of the social, cultural, behavioral, and political forces that shape regions of the world of strategic importance to the US."

Among the projects awarded for the period 2014-2017 is a Cornell University-led study managed by the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research which aims to develop an empirical model "of the dynamics of social movement mobilisation and contagions." The project will determine "the critical mass (tipping point)" of social contagians by studying their "digital traces" in the cases of "the 2011 Egyptian revolution, the 2011 Russian Duma elections, the 2012 Nigerian fuel subsidy crisis and the 2013 Gazi park protests in Turkey."

Twitter posts and conversations will be examined "to identify individuals mobilised in a social contagion and when they become mobilised."

Another project awarded this year to the University of Washington "seeks to uncover the conditions under which political movements aimed at large-scale political and economic change originate," along with their "characteristics and consequences." The project, managed by the US Army Research Office, focuses on "large-scale movements involving more than 1,000 participants in enduring activity," and will cover 58 countries in total....

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[MarilynO]

There are so many levels in which our lives and life of the planet are under threat. Some say we'll have massive social breakdown within the next ten years while meanwhile frying the planet beyond repair. Both things are related to a system that does not work for life or people. It's overwhelming and horrifying. What do we do with this information? Panic and buy guns? Hide our heads in the sand and party till we drop? Sit around pretending we can change it all with our thinking while not doing a damn thing?

I already tried living in a remote area in the mountains where not much of anything could reach me, but it was damn lonely and really rough…. and somehow I headed south and ended up in Sonoma County on a mission to reconnect with people. What we need is unity, accountability, willingness to put ourselves on the line, while preparing for the worst, hoping for the best, and taking actions that work toward a better world while remembering love and connection are what matters.

It's the disconnection and wanton disregard of the powers that be that have caused such terrifying circumstance while the majority of the populace appears to be in a trance that directs them to buy more stuff instead of thinking or responding appropriately to the threats to our well-being. I don't believe in being violent and so in regard to the money-crazed ravenous lunatics that destroy our world, I have come up with jokes like "kill them with kindness," and "love them to pieces" in some of my songs…. No longer seems adequate. Can't write the rest of my thoughts on that subject….

So I am reeling myself back from the abyss and into the constructive. I am growing my organic garden and inviting my friends for dinner. We have to unite in love of the earth and each other. We have to. We desperately desperately have to. Marilyn

[severe environmental and economic shocks are anticipated in the future - gotta get ready]

Full article can be found at https://www.theguardian.com/environme...ivil-breakdown

Pentagon preparing for mass civil breakdown

A US Department of Defense (DoD) research programme is funding universities to model the dynamics, risks and tipping points for large-scale civil unrest across the world, under the supervision of various US military agencies. The multi-million dollar programme is designed to develop immediate and long-term "warfighter-relevant insights" for senior officials and decision makers in "the defense policy community," and to inform policy implemented by "combatant commands."...

[podfish]

There are so many levels in which our lives and life of the planet are under threat. Some say we'll have massive social breakdown within the next ten years ...

we've been ten years away from massive social breakdown for much if not most of history...

[Hotspring 44]

In reading the article I noticed:

"In every context we find many individuals who share the demographic, family, cultural, and/or socioeconomic background of those who decided to engage in terrorism, and yet refrained themselves from taking up armed militancy, even though they were sympathetic to the end goals of armed groups. The field of terrorism studies has not, until recently, attempted to look at this control group. This project is not about terrorists, but about supporters of political violence."

That statement is vague at best and sounds to me is part of a larger foundation building of systematic erosion of Constitutional Rights and is quite a dangerous and disconcerting and likely an actionable go-around to constitutional rights that could be so easily abused and ultimately resulting in losing constitutional rights on both individual (freedom of speech) and and in-mass (freedom of association for one) one piece at a time in an subversive way intentionally; which the “law”would be no doubt “enforced” in some cases solely based on bias, exaggerated, imagined; (not factual; a fantasy) and prejudicial “accusations”.
Remember the violent police crackdown on Occupy in Oakland?... ...and the how and why that came about?... ...https://www.opednews.com/articles/Ou...40608-533.html

...And now consider for a moment, the likelihood of at some point in time that someone from or who is near to either a person who is from or a current or past member an “NGO” so much as communicates with a person who participates in “movements” like Occupy or any Constitutional protest for that matter could and definitely would be suspect of, in some way to be or having been aiding terrorists if the "powers that be" within that branch of "investigators" chose to say so for whatever reason, legitimately or not.
I don't know about you but to me that is frightening! It reminds me of the psychopathy of the Salem witch trials.

Also consider Edward Snowden's stated concerns, particularly:

"So many of the things we're told by the government simply aren't true."...
..."The Iraq war that I signed up for was launched on false premises. The American people were misled," Snowden said. "Now, whether that was due to bad faith or simply mistakes in intelligence, I can't say for sure. But I can say it shows the problem of putting too much faith in intelligence systems without debating them in public."

And last but not least at the end of the article it states so eloquently:

Minerva is a prime example of the deeply narrow-minded and self-defeating nature of military ideology. Worse still, the unwillingness of DoD officials to answer the most basic questions is symptomatic of a simple fact – in their unswerving mission to defend an increasingly unpopular global system serving the interests of a tiny minority, security agencies have no qualms about painting the rest of us as potential terrorists.

[podfish]

In reading the article I noticed:
"In every context we find many individuals who share the demographic, family, cultural, and/or socioeconomic background of those who decided to engage in terrorism, and yet refrained themselves from taking up armed militancy, even though they were sympathetic to the end goals of armed groups. The field of terrorism studies has not, until recently, attempted to look at this control group. This project is not about terrorists, but about supporters of political violence."

That statement is vague at best and sounds to me is part of a larger foundation building of systematic erosion of Constitutional Rights and is quite a dangerous and disconcerting

that's possible. You certainly can't trust the bastards. However, there's an equally plausible and more benign way to interpret this. It's an acknowledgement of the complexity and nuances of motivation within the general population, even in the part of the population that shares demographics with those engaging in terrorism. They're explictly stating that not everyone in this demographic is a terrorist, and that there may be a wide range of people who are in opposition to the author's point of view to such a degree that they're willing to potentially support political violence. You can look at this optimistically as an indication that the authors understand that their world view isn't the only one possible, and that they're looking for ways to engage with those who disagree with them in order to avoid political violence. That's the best path toward a more peaceful society anyway - until people transition from enforcing their worldview on a society to instead creating room for multiple worldviews to co-exist, by definition you've built conflict into the system.

As for the Snowden quote, he's making a statement that should be a cliche - it's always been true. I'm glad he exposed the details he did; we need activists like him to help limit the abuses of government, but noticing that a government makes untrue statements is like noticing that your parents lied about Santa Claus.

[Hotspring 44]

I would rather have or give Christmas presents than have or give overreaching government omni-presents.
.

...but noticing that a government makes untrue statements is like noticing that your parents lied about Santa Claus.