Counterinsurgency is a strange branch of military operations. The New York Times recently published an article suggesting that the overuse of powerpoint presentations was hurting the American war effort. Well, the Philippine military has developed a somewhat more “productive” use of the technology. One favored tactic by the AFP is to force poor people to watch anti-communist powerpoint shows, countering the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army (NPA) ... and by extension progressive movements, leftist party-lists, and labor unions. Besides the clear human rights violation presented by forcing people to endure powerpoint presentations, this reminds me of the tactics employers use in campaigning against union-recognition elections in the United States.
There is a longer meditation here on the political use of sovereign power. Sovereignty implies a state has control over people in its territory, just as private property and the labor contract imply the boss has control over people in his firm. If there’s interest, I’ll write it. Right now, I just wanted to point out that terribly non-democratic practices work even in the absence of outright fraud and the presence of the secret ballot.
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