Table Of ContentThe Hidden Structure of Violence
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The Hidden Structure
of Violence
Who Benefi ts from Global Violence and War
by MARC PILISUK and JENNIFER ACHORD ROUNTREE
MONTHLY REVIEW PRESS
New York
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Copyright © 2015 by Monthly Review Press
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pilisuk, Marc.
The hidden structure of violence : who benefits from global violence and
war / by Marc Pilisuk and Jennifer Achord Rountree.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-58367-542-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-58367-543-4
(cloth : alk. paper) 1. Violence. 2. War, Cost of. 3. War. I. Rountree,
Jennifer Achord. II. Title.
HM886.P57 2015
303.6—dc23
2015014106
Complete bibliographic information for this title is available
on our website.
Monthly Review Press
146 West 29th Street, Suite 6W
New York, New York 10001
www.monthlyreview.org
Typeset in Bulmer 11/14
5 4 3 2 1
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Contents
Preface / 7
Introduction / 9
1. The Costs of Modern War / 15
2. Killing: War and the Minds of Men / 55
3. The Hidden Structure of Violence / 80
4. People, Farmland, Water, and Narcotics / 109
5. Networks of Power / 131
6. Realpolitik: Strategies and Tactics for Winning / 174
7. Disinformation / 219
8. Values and Habits that Maintain a Violent System / 266
9. The Evolution of Corporate Power to Infl ict
Violence and Injustice: Dangers and Hopes / 283
Notes / 301
Index / 345
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Preface
THIS BOOK IS A SUBSTANTIALLY REVISED edition of our earlier work,
Who Benefi ts from Global Violence and War. The earlier version represented the
work of many people who helped to locate the information, synthesize and draft
summaries of diverse materials, and edit portions of the manuscript. For the fi rst
edition they include Danial Durazo, Peter Christiansen, Jillian Marks, Donna
Nassor, Wanda Woodward, Emmauelle Julien-Sinclair, Herb Diamond, Scott
Field, JoAnne Zazzi, Anthony Marsella, and William Domhoff . For the current
edition we recognize dedicated and tireless work by Chris Boyd, Pohsuan Zaide,
Jenni McConnell, James Reeds, Gianina Pellegrini, Monica Ajer, Ines-Lena Mahr,
Lael Curtis, and Carole Patrick. The authors are grateful to the Saybrook Univer-
sity librarians, Noah Lowenstein and Joe Marino, and to Laurens DeHaans for
tech support. We are deeply indebted to alternative media for providing informa-
tion not readily reported in the mainstream and particularly to Amy Goodman
of Democracy Now. We are indebted to the scholars, journalists, and professional
activists who look beneath the blanket of distracting facades to the voices of the
casualties of a violent social order and into the back rooms of powerful plan-
ners who orchestrate a continuing culture of violence and manipulation. Here
we must thank the Corporate Accountability Project, OxFam, Global Exchange,
Food First, Peace Action, Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties
Union, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, Project Censored, and the Psychol-
ogists for Social Responsibility, among myriad sources of information and hope.
The scholarship of two of Marc’s own mentors, Anatol Rapoport and Kenneth
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8 THE HIDDEN STRUCTURE OF VIOLENCE
Boulding, reverberates through the themes of this book as do the words of psy-
chologists JoAnna Macy and Mike Wessells. The inspiration we continue to fi nd
in the words and deeds of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. encourage us to believe that
a better world is possible—which is the main reason for this book.
Finally we appreciate deeply the contribution of our families. Marc’s parents,
Louis and Charlotte, provided him with the chance to grow up in an environment
in which social justice was truly valued. His wife, Phyllis, has listened and shared
the ideas and dilemmas in writing this book. He thanks her for her understanding
of long hours at work that made him less of a caregiver than he might have been
as her multiple sclerosis progressed. Jennifer thanks her husband, Shane, for his
ongoing encouragement, and her son Levi for his patience—many hours of play-
ing with stuff ed animals and Legos were delayed.
As parents and grandparents and practitioners working for those most in
need in our communities, we want our off spring to live in a world in which love
and interdependence fi nd the resources needed to assure peace, sustainability,
and justice. We hope this book will be a resource to that end.
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Introduction
During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes
a revolutionary act.
—GEORGE ORWELL
The trouble is that once you see it, you can’t un-see it. And once you’ve seen
it, keeping quiet becomes as political an act as speaking out. There’s no
innocence. Either way, you’re accountable.
—ARUNDHATI ROY
NO SOCIAL SCIENTIST IS VALUE-FREE. We write from a deep belief that
life is not only complex but also precious. Each individual is part of a web of
connections to others and to the surrounding ecology, a marvelous design that
sustains this delicate balance that is life. We believe also that this complex master-
piece is in danger that is largely the result of how many humans think and behave.
For life, particularly human life, to continue there must be a balance between
how we use our interconnections for our own needs and how we nurture these
connections so that the entire web of life can continue. If we abuse, exploit, and
conquer the world about us, we dishonor the gift of life and jeopardize the future.
If we care for the web and nurture it, then the world will nourish us.
This book is about contemporary global violence. When we wrote the origi-
nal edition, the United States was heavily engaged in two undeclared wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan. Neither has ended; neither has brought peace nor added
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