'Militarisation of mind': Democratic dissent being criminalised in the name of national unity

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*

The working masses are now seeking alternative political, cultural, social, and economic systems that work for all, irrespective of any form of discrimination on the grounds of gender, class, race, sexuality, religion, or caste. People understand and recognize that capitalism is not working for them.

Therefore, alternative politics is essential for the social, economic, and cultural transformations needed to achieve a progressive, prosperous, and peaceful future. The working masses have grown increasingly weary of the capitalist culture, characterised by exploitation, violence, and the deceptive strategies of the ruling classes.

The working masses understand that radical change cannot come from traditional systems that have long upheld inequality and injustice of various kinds, but from new ideas and movements that challenge the status quo and prioritise the well-being of all.

Therefore, the world is currently witnessing various forms of mass resistance against reactionary and authoritarian ruling classes. Movements such as Black Lives Matter, climate action initiatives, farmers' protests, and anti-war, anti-capitalist, and anti-Zionist campaigns are emerging as significant forms of political struggle.

These movements aim to drive social and environmental change toward a sustainable future for both people and the planet. However, the ruling classes have unleashed their onslaught on the working masses in the name of protecting national sovereignty, cultural unity, and religious, racial, and caste purity. Such a strategy by the ruling class serves four specific objectives that uphold the interests of capitalism.

Firstly, it ties working people to their immediate constructed identities and superficial interests in the name of nationalism, culture, religion, tradition, and family honour.

Secondly, it dismantles unity among working people, preventing any form of radical democratic transformation.

Thirdly, it destroys progressive consciousness based on shared experiences and solidarity.

Finally, it creates the foundation for security states and authoritarian corporate governments, which are designed to police protests and criminalise dissent to uphold the interests of both the ruling and non-ruling elites.

By criminalising dissent, progressive protests, and radical alternatives, the elites are institutionalising crime and criminal culture. For example, the criminalisation of anti-Zionist protests is a way of justifying the Jewish Holocaust, racism, and genocide. In this way, the criminalisation of democratic dissent undermines democracy and its potential for progressive transformation.

The structural discriminatory practices, repressive and illiberal cultures of capitalism are incompatible with the requirements of a modern, democratic and progressive society based on solidarity.

Thus, disenchantment with capitalism and its political, social, and cultural forms is growing across the world. In order to control the growth of alternative politics, capitalism is instigating so-called nationalistic wars, regional conflicts and forming alliances with reactionary, religious, and authoritarian forces to normalise its existence and undermine democracy and citizenship rights.

By criminalising dissent, progressive protests, and radical alternatives, the elites are institutionalising crime and criminal culture

It promotes and imposes a culture of crisis, where a 'dog-eat-dog' principle creates insecurities in lives and liberties, making the primacy of security states and authoritarian governments, led by capitalism, seem like the only viable and natural alternative.

Militarisation of mind is another safety net of capitalism. Through the militarisation of minds via wars, religious, cultural, and social conflicts, capitalism aims to domesticate individuals and societies within its own narratives by undermining their immediate material needs.

This militarisation not only stimulates an epidemic of mental health crises but also erodes individuals' ability to think critically and rationally. It undermines both collective and individual consciousness, obstructing the creation of a progressive and scientific society free from injustice and exploitation.

Militarisation of the mind is a war by other means, where many people effectively sign their own death warrant and reason meets its natural end, creating fertile ground for mass domestication under the criminal system of capitalism.

Crime, criminalisation, courts, and legal infrastructures are inseparable from capitalism as a system. Criminalisation is a tool of capitalist governance, where condemning people to life in prison is presented as an alternative to justice.

The individual's crime is replaced by systemic crime, where reform is not possible, and justice is denied. It breeds the arbitrariness of power by the state, government and courts.

Delegitimising democratic dissent in the name of national unity, depoliticising the state and government in the name of economic growth, and creating legal regimes to protect property and political conditions to facilitate capital accumulation are the pillars of technologically driven contemporary capitalism. Any alternative discourse to capitalism is deemed a crime; thus, criminalisation is a well-organised outcome of capitalism.

Crime and criminalisation breed crime and criminal enterprises within capitalism. There is no justice within these cycles and circles of crime. In such a situation, reform within capitalism is merely a way of maintaining the status quo. It is unlikely to serve the working masses.

The world needs an uninterrupted mass struggle to end capitalism and to establish and sustain any form of alternatives that serve the people and the planet. Working toward the demise of capitalism is the first step in the search for alternatives.

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*Academic based in UK

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