The Militarization of Science and Space

The basic principle underlying our current economy is �to make rich people happy
and make everybody else frightened.� Chomsky lays particular blame for this doctrine
on Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan-- �Saint Alan�-- who claims the economy
is working well because of private entrepreneurial initiative and expanding consumer
choice. Chomsky disagrees.

He claims that in the last 30 years, it has been public spending on such technologies
as computers, satellites, the Internet and lasers that has fed the economy. And the
wealth derived from these technologies has gone primarily into the hands of corporate
masters, who represent a fraction of the American (European) people.

The government has used a succession of bogeymen�the Soviets, Communist
insurgents around the world, and now global terrorism�to scare taxpayers into
supporting core defense programs whose technologies ultimately spin off into private
hands. The current administration advocates not merely controlling space, but
owning it, with a new missile-based system and satellite-guided unmanned
drones.
This expensive strategy, combined with the doctrine of striking first at perceived
enemies, may well bring global calamity.

Chomsky begins at 06:17.