# Perpetual War [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_war) (20th century–present) ## Description Perpetual/permanent war, the military-industrial complex, and the politics of manufactured reality — the idea that continuous, low-grade or endlessly-renewed conflict has become a structural feature of contemporary politics and economics, sustained in part by media and propaganda that construct their own "reality." ## Key Tags #perpetual-war #military-industrial-complex #politics ## Essential Works - Butler, Smedley D. *War Is a Racket*. Veterans for Peace, 1935 (reprint 1995). - First-hand account by a retired U.S. Marine general arguing that war is conducted primarily for corporate/financial profit — an early articulation of the military-industrial-complex critique - Suskind, Ron. "Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W. Bush." *New York Times Magazine*, October 17, 2004. - Source of the widely-cited "reality-based community" quote on the Bush administration creating "its own reality" ## Details > The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do." (Ron Suskind, quoting a senior Bush administration official, *NYT Magazine*, 2004) ### Key Theorists - Vladislav Surkov - Russian political strategist credited with theorizing "political technology" and the deliberate blurring of political reality via managed opposition and media spectacle ### Exemplary Practitioners %% none yet %% ### Related Concepts - [[Surveillance]] - surveillance apparatus and the security state expand under conditions of perpetual war - [[Sociology and Politics]] - shares concerns with authoritarianism, propaganda, and epistemic fragility ### Creative and Technical Practices %% none yet %% ### Associated Movements or Institutions %% none yet %% ## References ### Primary Sources Bibliography Butler, Smedley D. *War Is a Racket*. Veterans for Peace, 1995. ### Secondary Sources Bibliography "Phantasmagoria. Note: A Couple People Asked Me To..." *Medium*, by Ned Resnikoff. Accessed October 16, 2025. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220121074008/https://medium.com/@resnikoff/phantasmagoria-3beac7fe516d](https://web.archive.org/web/20220121074008/https://medium.com/@resnikoff/phantasmagoria-3beac7fe516d). "The New Military-Industrial Complex and the Israeli-Hamas War." *Global Policy Journal*, April 10, 2024. [https://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/blog/10/04/2024/new-military-industrial-complex-and-israeli-hamas-war](https://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/blog/10/04/2024/new-military-industrial-complex-and-israeli-hamas-war). *Wikipedia*. "Vladislav Surkov." September 13, 2025. [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vladislav_Surkov&oldid=1311039524](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vladislav_Surkov&oldid=1311039524). Suskind, Ron. "Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W. Bush." *New York Times Magazine*, October 17, 2004. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220121074008/http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/faith-certainty-and-the-presidency-of-george-w-bush.html?_r=0](https://web.archive.org/web/20220121074008/http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/faith-certainty-and-the-presidency-of-george-w-bush.html?_r=0).