John Kenneth Galbraith: Aging well

Well into his 90s, economist John Kenneth Galbraith - whose resume includes Presidential adviser, ambassador to India, antiwar activist, and penetrating social critic - is still writing, still concerned about the state of the world and his country, and still making more sense than 99% of the blather you seen written and broadcast about politics.

A cloud over civilisation by John Kenneth Galbraith Guardian (UK) 07/15/04

The greatest military misadventure in American history until Iraq was the war in Vietnam. ...

At this time [the Kennedy adminstration] the military establishment in Washington was in support of the war. Indeed, it was taken for granted that both the armed services and the weapons industries should accept and endorse hostilities - Dwight Eisenhower's "military-industrial complex".

In 2003, close to half the total US government discretionary expenditure was used for military purposes. A large part was for weapons procurement or development. Nuclear-powered submarines run to billions of dollars, individual planes to tens of millions each.

Such expenditure is not the result of detached analysis. From the relevant industrial firms come proposed designs for new weapons, and to them are awarded production and profit. In an impressive flow of influence and command, the weapons industry accords valued employment, management pay and profit in its political constituency, and indirectly it is a treasured source of political funds. The gratitude and the promise of political help go to Washington and to the defence budget. And to foreign policy or, as in Vietnam and Iraq, to war. That the private sector moves to a dominant public-sector role is apparent. ...

Civilisation has made great strides over the centuries in science, healthcare, the arts and most, if not all, economic well-being. But it has also given a privileged position to the development of weapons and the threat and reality of war. Mass slaughter has become the ultimate civilised achievement.

The facts of war are inescapable - death and random cruelty, suspension of civilised values, a disordered aftermath. Thus the human condition and prospect as now supremely evident.Theeconomic and social problems here described can, with thought and action, be addressed. So they have already been. War remains the decisive human failure.

Did I also mention he has been a leading critic of the excessive influence of the military-industrial complex and its potential dangers for democracy?

The article is an excerpt from his new book, The Economics of Innocent Fraud (2004).

I hope we'll continue to hear from Kenneth Galbraith for a long time to come.