[h=3]A Substitute For War[/h] Then in Section 6, "Substitutes for the Functions of War," Doe, writing for the Special Study Group, goes on to outline the economic necessities which must be applied:
"Economic surrogates for war must meet two principal criteria. They must be 'wasteful,' in the common sense of the word, and they must operate outside the normal supply-demand system. A corollary that should be obvious is that the magnitude of the waste must be sufficient to meet the needs of a particular society. An economy as advanced and complex as our own requires the planned average destruction of not less than 10% of gross national product..."
Please read this incredible revelation a second, and maybe even a third, time. For this admission will help you understand Lewin's following comment and 40-plus years of history." ...[It explains, or certainly appears to explain, aspects of American policy otherwise incomprehensible by the ordinary standards of common sense."]
After exploring a whole range of "substitute" possibilities, such as a war on poverty, space research, even "the credibility of an out-of- our-world invasion threat," the Special Study Group reports and Doe recites." It may be, for instance, that gross pollution of the environment can eventually replace the possibility of mass destruction by nuclear weapons as the principal apparent threat to the survival of the species. Poisoning of the air, and of the principal sources of food and water supply, is already well advanced, and at first glance would seem promising in this respect; it constitutes a threat that can be dealt with only through social organization and political power. But from present indications it will be a generation to a generation- and-a-half before environmental pollution, however severe, will be sufficiently menacing, on a global scale, to offer a possible basis for a solution."
I hope you didn't skim over the preceding paragraph. It explains, with almost unbelievable boldness, that environmental concerns were an almost perfect replacement for war, but it would take a generation or a generation-and-a-half (that is, 20 to 30 years) to bring this about. Remember, we are talking about a report circa 1967.
The time frame is now complete, as evidenced by an article in the March 20, 1990, Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The front-page headline says, "Pollution a 'ticking time bomb,' conference warned." Datelined Vancouver, B.C., the lead paragraph read, "Environmental destruction is a 'ticking time bomb' that poses a 'more absolute' threat to human survival than nuclear annihilation during the Cold War, former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland told an international environment conference here."
The article goes on, "The conference, Globe '90, was launched yesterday amid warnings that pollution and overpopulation are threats that require resources previously committed to the arms race."
I'll have more to say about Globe '90 and other such conferences later. Now let's continue with Report From Iron Mountain and its revelations.
In the section, "Substitutes for the Functions of War," they conclude:
"However unlikely some of the possible alternate enemies we have mentioned may seem, we must emphasize that one must be found, of credible quality and magnitude, if a transition to peace is ever to come about without social disintegration."
Then they say, "It is more probable, in our judgment, that
such a threat will have to be invented, rather than developed from unknown conditions." [The emphasis is definitely mine.]
Doe, a.k.a. J.K. Galbraith, then summarizes, "What is involved here, in a sense, is the quest for William James' 'moral equivalent of war.'"
All I can say is, "equivalent of war" it is and has become, but "moral," never!
It is also worth noting that in his section entitled, "Background Information," Doe says, "The general idea...for this kind of study dates back at least to 1961. It started with some of the new people who came in with the Kennedy Administration, mostly, I think, with McNamara, Bundy, and Rusk."
The very same McGeorge Bundy who served as Kennedy's National Security Advisor has a feature article in Foreign Affairs, Vol. 69, No.1. Bundy's piece is entitled, "From Cold War Toward Trusting Peace." You must give these devils their due -- they are very patient.
https://www.lawfulpath.com/ref/greening.shtml
