By Jonathan Michael Feldman, March 22, 2022, Updated March 23 and March 25, 2022 This essay reviews some of the left militarist arguments for weapons shipments to Ukraine. Based on the Swedish case, I hypothesize that these arguments come from a lack of understanding about the logic of militarism. Priority number 1 is to end…
Continue readingStockholm Syndrome 2022: The Faustian Bargain of Left Militarism in Ukraine
By Jonathan M. Feldman, March 20, 2022 The Azov batalian is used to equate Ukraine with Nazis. Yet, the story of Ukraine is far more complicated. Some of Ukraine’s Nazi problem even comes from Sweden: The Azov battalion “has drawn far-right volunteers from abroad, such as Mikael Skillt, a 37-year-old Swede, trained as a sniper…
By Jonathan Michael Feldman, March 14, 2022 The article, “Dags att bita i det sura äpplet,” written by Mats Åberg advocating Swedish NATO membership in Dagens Arena, published March 14, 2022, is quite unfortunate. It ignores numerous facts and realities. First, it follows the logic of the “magical mantra” in which any Swedish move is…
Continue readingDagens Arena’s Pro-NATO Article by Mats Åberg: A Brief Critique
By Jonathan Michael Feldman, March 11, 2022 Russia is engaged in a hideous and immoral war. There’s no point in excusing Russia or being a “useful idiot” for Russian militarism. Yet, there is a point in understanding Russia’s security logic and how it’s not that different from those who want to join NATO or Swedish…
Continue readingNATO Logic or Magical Mantras? A Critique of Gunnar Hökmark’s Swedish NATO Appeal
This mural, a fossil and highpoint of Sweden’s anti-militarist culture, was unveiled at the Östermalmstorg subway station in 1965. One key slogan engraved in concrete says, “Down with weapons.” It is obvious that on the question of war the Marxist tradition presents neither unity nor clarity. One point was common to all the Marxist trends:…
Continue readingSweden’s Military Transfer to Ukraine for Beginners
By Jonathan Michael Feldman, February 24, 2022 The Ecological Mobilization that Wasn’t to the War Mobilization that Is: Mutually Assured Paranoia A systemic ecological mobilization at a fast pace, with necessary sacrifices, has been needed to avoid further climate catastrophes. Today wehave mobilization for war based on militarist managerialism. As various nations attempt to shift…
Continue readingMutually Assured Paranoia in the Ukraine Crisis: The Failures of Elite Planning
By Jonathan Michael Feldman, February 20, 2022, Revised February 22, 2022 What is Military Managerialism? Military managerialism is a principle described by thinkers like C. Wright Mills and Seymour Melman, two Columbia University professors who were among the leading anti-militarist intellectuals in the United States. The principle of military managerialism suggests that bureaucracies are based…
Beyond Terrorism and Militarism Redux An Analysis of 9-11: Twenty Years Later Notes from a Speech to Sveriges Socialdemokratiska Ungdomsförbund (Social Democratic Student Organization) By Jonathan Michael Feldman, Stockholm University September 11, 2021 Overview In this talk, I will first discuss the causes of the 9-11 attacks. Then I will address, the costs of the…
By Jonathan Michael Feldman, September 8, 2021 One core feature of advanced capitalist states are morally indifferent bureaucracies. Even though publics are alienated from them, they still have within their wages (after surplus value) disposable income which can be leveraged to create a credibility tax on companies. This tax can be applied by direction action…