Essay on the Deep State, by Mike Lofgren


william.scherk

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Do you ever get slightly confused by the term "Deep State," or wonder if another person is sensing the same concept as you?

Here's an interesting analytical essay by Mike Lofgren, author of the book "The Deep State." 

Anatomy of the Deep State

Quote

Yes, there is another government concealed behind the one that is visible at either end of Pennsylvania Avenue, a hybrid entity of public and private institutions ruling the country according to consistent patterns in season and out, connected to, but only intermittently controlled by, the visible state whose leaders we choose. My analysis of this phenomenon is not an exposé of a secret, conspiratorial cabal; the state within a state is hiding mostly in plain sight, and its operators mainly act in the light of day. Nor can this other government be accurately termed an “establishment.” All complex societies have an establishment, a social network committed to its own enrichment and perpetuation. In terms of its scope, financial resources and sheer global reach, the American hybrid state, the Deep State, is in a class by itself. That said, it is neither omniscient nor invincible. The institution is not so much sinister (although it has highly sinister aspects) as it is relentlessly well entrenched. Far from being invincible, its failures, such as those in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, are routine enough that it is only the Deep State’s protectiveness towards its higher-ranking personnel that allows them to escape the consequences of their frequent ineptitude. [2]

How did I come to write an analysis of the Deep State, and why am I equipped to write it? As a congressional staff member for 28 years specializing in national security and possessing a top secret security clearance, I was at least on the fringes of the world I am describing, if neither totally in it by virtue of full membership nor of it by psychological disposition. But, like virtually every employed person, I became, to some extent, assimilated into the culture of the institution I worked for, and only by slow degrees, starting before the invasion of Iraq, did I begin fundamentally to question the reasons of state that motivate the people who are, to quote George W. Bush, “the deciders.”

Cultural assimilation is partly a matter of what psychologist Irving L. Janis called “groupthink,” the chameleon-like ability of people to adopt the views of their superiors and peers. This syndrome is endemic to Washington: The town is characterized by sudden fads, be it negotiating biennial budgeting, making grand bargains or invading countries. Then, after a while, all the town’s cool kids drop those ideas as if they were radioactive. As in the military, everybody has to get on board with the mission, and questioning it is not a career-enhancing move. The universe of people who will critically examine the goings-on at the institutions they work for is always going to be a small one. As Upton Sinclair said, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”

[NB Dec 17: The code above did not survive the relocation of my web host to HostPapa. The poster to the video and the direct link follow.

deepstatePoster.png

https://wsscherk.com/VIDEOCASTS/A11KF/The-Heat-Is-there-a-deep-state-or-shadow-government-Pt-1.mp4

-- who knew there was a website called Wikispooks.com?  Here's a link to their page on Deep State, which uncovers the interesting provenance of the phrase ...

Edited by william.scherk
Tried to remove dead video code, added direct link.

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Do you ever have puzzles in the back of your mind that come to the fore sometimes? For me some words are like mechanical puzzles. I'm just now re-reading the Lofgren essay and the Camille Paglia discussion cited in in the link at bottom.

But anyhow, one of the mild nagging concrete questions is 'can it be enumerated?' Meaning, I wonder if we could get an org chart and names/functions. I muse that it could be a cell-network drawn from terrorist history (the corps actors known only to the 'cell' they are in; with occulted leadership;with a general "political line" leading all the parallel/embedded agents).

It's a term that I think should be perfectly amenable to an Objectivist approach. And I fail to satisfy myself.

The main confusion is my mind is due to a fusion of "Ship of State" with "Deep State," as shown in my stab at the puzzle today. Things to do on a bicycle ride building back my stamina. "That's not quite right, William. Better luck next time."

 

 

Showing results for '"deep state"' in content posted by william.scherk. - Objectivist Living

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“So..you're tellin’ me’ there’s a chance”

I do like a good Allen Drury book.

I think the fact that the globe is suffering through the China Death Plague means this isn’t a boogeymen tale , Trumpism, Brexit and color revolutions hither and yon could be a sign the status quo and the current state of entrenchment could be experiencing some faults, or fractures. More spikes and wedges !

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22 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

See the problem when one refuses to accept the nature of one kind of category and wants it to have the nature of a different kind?

From the main stage at Objectivist Living. Pertinent to future discussions of the deepitude of the deepness. In Scientology, this would be the Beingness of the Havingness.

1 hour ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

To be fair re Deep State and SCOTUS, this looks really Deep Statey, plenty enough Deep Statey to qualify calling part of SCOTUS Deep State.

and 

I don't know who the source of this is, but I can take an educated guess.

There is a lot of news around that Julian Assange formally asked President Trump for a pardon and, before that, a rumor was circulating that President Trump was going to pardon him.

Or, maybe something from from Jeffrey Epstein archives that no one knows where they are (except maybe Ghislaine)? After all, Epstein did record his guests without their knowledge.

Either that, or this is a show of muscle about the DNI's surveillance capabilities.

Or maybe something else I haven't thought of.

One thing is for sure. I find the idea that Lin would put this out without having a credible source impossible.

Once the audio becomes available, this is going to be like the Access Hollywood audio was for candidate Trump. Let's see if Roberts and Breyer figure out how to deal with it the way Trump did his headache. I don't think they have the talent to pull it off.

Man, talk about a perfect-fit-with-no-daylight pretext for martial law...

Michael

To be fair re Deep State and SCOTUS, this looks really Deep Statey, plenty enough Deep Statey to qualify calling part of SCOTUS Deep State.

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