Toward a New Barbarism, Part VI
Pathological Conservatives: Winning politically requires making a coalition of interests. One does this by forming an elite who agree willingly to work together despite some lack of obvious shared material interest. Ideology has the same effect as willing agreement on elites except on managers and rump supporters, often unwittingly. By the dictum of Clausewitz – war as continuation of politics and vice versa – we see that war functions similarly. We use symbols, myth, and the like to stir the broad mass of supporters in war while the leaders are usually more focused on their interests. One tries to build a coalition before going to war and keep it strong or, if need be, strengthen it in the course of the war. Whichever side in a struggle has the best coalition, be it political struggle or overtly material in nature, will probably win. If this strength is relative, then that is fine; if one is strong by virtue of the fact that the enemy’s coalition has been undermined by skulldugger