Trapped: Life under Security Capitalism and How to Escape It

the Pentagon is the largest institutional consumer of petroleum on planet Earth. If we defund the security-industrial complex, we can massively reduce an unnecessary carbon boot print.

The airport is also a lightning rod for societal fear of terrorism, where the public accepts costly and intrusive measures despite their inefficacy. How do we convince people that airport security is not a necessary stage in a middle-class adventure but, instead, a space one pays to have one’s liberty stripped off and replaced with illusionary safe

During the past two decades, the US government spent approximately $7 trillion destabilizing the Middle East in the name of counterterrorism, resulting in at least three hundred thousand civilian deaths. However, the number of deaths per annum from terrorism is higher than in 2001.

During the twenty years from 2001 to 2021, the US government spent between $6 and $8 trillion on invasions, surveillance, and efforts to shadowbox with elusive enemies. Brown University’s Costs of War project estimates that over three hundred thousand civilians may have died from war-related violence in Iraq, Afghanistan, and neighboring Pakistan,

The public should trust the EU even though it was building a vast security sector because surveillance and black-clad commandos would only ever be used against bad people, such as traffickers or terrorists.

In truth, the security-industrial complex decides what counts as a threat and what does not. Russian hackers and environmental activists are today’s threats; tomorrow, it could be you!