And maybe it's worth mentioning that Admiral Stavridis is a Managing Director of the global investment firm the Carlyle Group. They are heavy investors in military, weapons and security-state technology. All of these technologies figure in the novel. They have investments in China, India and Saudi Arabia (Domino's Pizza, of all things). Their investors and board members have been and are made up of ex-presidents, ex-CIA officials, and other key political figures, like former secretary of defense and CIA deputy director Frank Carlucci, former secretary of state James Baker III, former President George H. W. Bush, former UK Prime Minister John Major, and former chairman of the SEC Arthur Levitt; and Osama Bin Laden's estranged family was personally invested in the group until 2002. They have endured controversy, especially following the events of 9/11, and Michael Moore covers the Group succinctly in his film, Fahrenheit 9/11. Here's an excerpt.
So, why read a book like 2034: A Novel of the Next World War when you anticipate the shortcomings of its literary value, beginning with the fact that it's ghostwritten and is marketed as a franchise -- with two more catastrophes to come, bringing the loyal reader to The End? For one thing, you get a free listen-in to conservative thinking at a time of cataclysmic worry. Such minds are likely to be in control of the ideas that shape our policies toward the rolling pearl harbors promised ahead. It's relevant that Admiral Stavridis has such a cozy position in the midst of what Eisenhower called the Military-Industrial-Complex (we call it the Deep State today). The Admiral, as a member of the Carlyle Group, stands to make a lot of money managing investments that don't make the world a better place. The novel reinforces the notion that these people think catastrophes mean welcome opportunities, as is suggested by the Moore film excerpt above, and also that they really don't care about people at all. What could have been an educated, enlightening narrative that provides nuance and meaning to the exceptionalist hegemony (hedge money, wot?) the globe has been forced to endure for at least 75 years, reads instead like an insider's whispers of where to invest.
It was a mercifully short read. If you feel the need to read it, email me and I'll send along my foam-dogged copy.
(Article changed on Aug 11, 2021 at 6:07 PM EDT)
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