Pentagon preparing for mass civil breakdown

[UglyGreed]

Social science is being militarised to develop 'operational tools' to target peaceful activists and protest movements

US Department of Defense (DoD) research programme is funding universities to model the dynamics, risks and tipping points for large-scale civil unrest across the world, under the supervision of various US military agencies. The multi-million dollar programme is designed to develop immediate and long-term "warfighter-relevant insights" for senior officials and decision makers in "the defense policy community," and to inform policy implemented by "combatant commands."

Launched in 2008 – the year of the global banking crisis – the DoD 'Minerva Research Initiative' partners with universities "to improve DoD's basic understanding of the social, cultural, behavioral, and political forces that shape regions of the world of strategic importance to the US."

Among the projects awarded for the period 2014-2017 is a Cornell University-led study managed by the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research which aims to develop an empirical model "of the dynamics of social movement mobilisation and contagions." The project will determine "the critical mass (tipping point)" of social contagians by studying their "digital traces" in the cases of "the 2011 Egyptian revolution, the 2011 Russian Duma elections, the 2012 Nigerian fuel subsidy crisis and the 2013 Gazi park protests in Turkey."

Twitter posts and conversations will be examined "to identify individuals mobilised in a social contagion and when they become mobilised."


http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/jun/12/pentagon-mass-civil-breakdown?CMP=share_btn_fb

[orpupilofnature57]

1. Thomas Jefferson told us in 1812, Ike in 1961, and Jimmy Carter 1981

We won't listen .

[Volaris]

2. That these people define peaceful protests and protest movements as "social contagions"

tells me everything I need to know.

Hedges is correct. Those in Power, ALWAYS define the parameters of their own overthrow.
Why is this not in the New York Times?
Oh, wait. That's right...

[Demeter]

3. DoD is far more likely to INCITE "mass civil breakdowns"

and just for the hell of it, to test out their toys and their schemes for coup.

[sulphurdunn]

4. Naturally, the Ivy League

is involved, but that makes sense. After all, that's where the ruling class is educated.

[bemildred]

5. All the science in the world won't help you when you are governed by ignorant poltroons. nt

[cynzke]

6. Climate Damage and Over Population.

This planet can't support a massive population and humans are reeking havoc on natural resources. We are seeing the beginning of the consequence of the damage. It will result in rioting and war over food and water. Killing off bees, acid rain killing off the oceans and forests, water supplies dwindling, this planet can not produce enough food. Governments are preparing for the economic and social breakdown that follows.

[jwirr]

17. It would be comforting if I thought that they were at all interested in protecting us little people

from the consequences of all this. Any plans they are making will not include most of the 99%. Unless of course they need us to slave for them.

[Enthusiast]

7. The continuing right wing coup that started with the assassination of JFK.

[RoccoR5955]

8. It started earlier than that

Try with the robber barons.

[Scuba]

10. Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner.

[deutsey]

9. Which, of course, makes much more sense

than actually addressing the social and political factors that are leading to mass civil breakdown.

Viva, la austerity!

[GreatGazoo]

11. Good luck stopping consumer boycotts

or many (not all) of the others on this list:

http://www.aforcemorepowerful.org/resources/nonviolent/methods.php

[Thespian2]

12. When the people

of the world begin the total revolt, all the expensive studies purchased by the DoD will be completely ineffective. If the problems in the Middle East prove anything, they clearly show that military might cannot win, short of blowing the earth to hell and back with nuclear weapons. Too bad this beautiful planet has to end because of the GREEDY BASTARDS who own it.

[edhopper]

13. These are very important

things to study and understand. Especially for US foreign policy.
But unfortunately, the DOD is not the agency that should be doing it.

[librechik]

14. Of course they are! n/t

[Eleanors38]

15. If DOD is thinking "across the world," they are thinking...

...right here.

This digitizing thing. The DOD will not ignore the data the government/corp. Power is collecting now. They want the perfect algorithm to I.D. the trouble-makers premptively.

[Avalux]

16. "Social contagions"

Here's a good background on Contagion Theory:

Gustave Le Bon, a French social psychologist born in 1841, is considered to be the founder of crowd psychology, which explains why people do the things they do in groups. Le Bon's 1895 book, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, attributed crowd behavior to the 'collective racial unconscious' of the mob overtaking individuals' sense of self and personality and personal responsibility.

According to Le Bon, relieved of individual responsibility, individuals will behave in a more primal fashion. He asserts, 'by the mere fact that he forms part of an organized crowd, a man descends several rungs on the ladder of civilization.' A modern comparison might be the teenager who argues that his own actions of toilet papering the principal's house weren't so bad because everybody else was doing it, too.

In his book, Le Bon also formulated the contagion theory, which argues that crowds cause people to act in a certain way. The theory suggests that crowds exert a sort of hypnotic influence on their members. The hypnotic influence combined with the anonymity of belonging to a large group of people, even just for that moment, results in irrational, emotionally charged behavior. Or, as the name implies, the frenzy of the crowd is somehow contagious, like a disease, and the contagion feeds upon itself, growing with time. In the end, the crowd has assumed a life of its own, stirring up emotions and driving people toward irrational, even violent action.

The 18th-century French Revolution is an example of how contagion theory can be used to explain crowd behavior. Exacerbated by hard economic times, famine, and resentment of the ruling class, crowds of peasants, farmers, and workers stormed the Bastille on July 14, 1789, with the intention of obtaining guns and killing the ruling class, including King Louis XVI.

http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/crowd-behavior-contagion-convergent-emergent-norm-theory.html

Almost seems like zombie-like behavior, no?

I think the keepers of the status quo know that sooner, not later, the constructs that are in place to keep us all under control aren't gong to work anymore.

[WinkyDink]

18. The Pentagon and its acolytes: Does anyone REALLY think they exist to protect democracy?!? Hahahaha!

[Taitertots]

19. any guesses what the military funded study will recommend?

I've got $100 that says they will recommend more war spending.