gunpowder and power

GUNPOWDER AND POWER


The balance of power being altered by gunpowder, and then by asymmetrical warfare, is the topic of today’s discussion. I’m not preaching to the choir on this one, but as with any new subject I become interested in, more like opening the floor for discussion. I have no answers, but I think at this stage it is possible to ask new questions that might lead to some answers. Why is this important? Because the political make up of post-apocalypse societies effects us all ( assuming we live that long ). If, to my thinking, the most likely leadership to emerge is going to be feudal in nature, we need to figure out if that is a natural path or if somehow gunpowder will prevent that from happening.

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The first question that comes to mind is, if gunpowder enables individuals to gain their freedom, why did monarchies survive for three hundred years? Because gunpowder needs industrial amounts of nitrates from fertilizers. And if a king had the good fortune to happen upon a source of naturally occurring nitrates he could invade/occupy, the monarchy was strengthened. Centralized power was possible and even foreordained at that point. And, if wood was needed to fabricate steel, controlling forests in effect controlled the process of rifle production. Here were two great ways the Crown controlled gun use. Now, another nifty way was to control the infrastructure. The king controlled the land which controlled food production which fed everyone. How many rebellions got started without the food to feed the fighters? Control the food and it doesn’t matter the weapons. So why did the kings finally get overthrown?

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The Czars ruled through the early part of 1900. What was that, four hundred years or so after gunpowder infantry started to predominate? In fact, monarchies never gave way but merely changed from being hereditary to committee appointed and from kings to commissars. Dictatorships never went away. Land as the basis of wealth slowly but surely vanished, and with it a feudal structure. But absolute rule over the common people never stopped, even far after smokeless powder arms predominated. Personal arms becoming less brutal to use and more accurate never altered the balance of power between rulers and the ruled. What I propose changed was that agriculture turning to oil alone for creation. Once food stopped being decentralized, it entered the same vulnerability that factories had earlier. Since sabotage was now easy and possible by single individuals, the central powers had to, in effect, bribe off the enemy. When factories came to dominate, workers were given a bigger piece of the profit, and slavery was abolished. When agriculture went to a factory system fueled by oil, the potential saboteurs ( one guy can wreck the pipeline feeding the natural gas to the fertilizer plant or destroy the combine reaping thousands of bushels ) had to be bought off and bribed. We pretty much started feeding the worlds poor to keep and retain our Empire ( if you think our inability to continue to bribe them doesn’t mean our empire is over-it’s all over but the fat lady singing- then you ain’t paying attention ). Before, we had plenty of jockeying for position, but nobody seriously screwed with the infrastructure that feed them ( the African oil pipeline attacks are a further indication how the old regime is broken ).

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There has been asymmetrical warfare as long as there has been warfare. I would like to propose, as a working theory, that the only reason it has been so successful recently is not because of modern infantry weapons, but the fact that the participants were getting a free ride off of America’s program of feeding the world ( no, we don’t feed a billion Chinese or even more Indians- I’m saying that a large portion of the globes population was made possible by the corn surplus we used to puke out in ungodly amounts ). We subsidized the ability of guerrillas to fight without the historic burden of needing to grow their own food. I think that all other factors aside ( our WWII victory, our industrial lead prior to that, the dominant dollar, whatever ), this one-subsidized food- led to our global control. I understand this might be too simplistic. But it had to at least be a factor, henceforth not noted.

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America’s experiment with individual freedom and firearm ownership is an aberration historically. The seed was Great Britain, unable to afford to garrison their new prize ( kill the savages and an entire rich unexploited continent was enough to keep her in power for centuries ) which she fell into ass backwards, allowed militias to do her dirty work ( those pesky savages, thinking this was there home! ). Government policy allowed the individual to be armed, as a de facto free army. We didn’t “force” this right through threat. Remember, the Russian pioneers were pretty much the same, armed and allowed to kill the natives to farm the land. In the end, they didn’t stay armed and we did, but today we can all be killed by the control over food. Regardless of our weapons. Because only the centralized state can feed us. You could put a squad automatic machinegun in every home and as long as the empire fed us, we wouldn’t revolt. We will revolt, with AR-15’s or just pitchforks and torches, if the food flow in disrupted. We are fed and entertained, and make no mistake, the Right To Bear Arms is just entertainment for a lot of us as we puff out our chests and pretend to be free. The bread and circuses insure we are bribed and bought off. Individual freedom and our mighty invulnerability due to personal firearms is a great myth, I’ve enjoyed it myself, but it simply ain’t true. Oh, how I relish the coming wounded howls and spit flying arguments. Bring it on! Just bring logic, rather than emotion, please. I think my basic points are sound, but I do welcome constructive criticism of points I’ve fumbled or overlooked. Peace.

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