Llevaba tiempo con la mosca detrás de la oreja si abrir o no un thread sobre este tema, y es que es un discurso desconocido por muchos y que se suele pasar por alto a pesar de su contenido casi profético.
Antes que nada decir para quien no lo sepa, Eisenhower era un ex militar (o mejor dicho, EL ex militar) y republicano, osease que de "rojo" tenía bastante poco.
Este discurso fue televisado el 17 de enero de 1961, antes de dejar el cargo de presidente de EEUU a su sucesor, John F. Kennedy.
El discurso completo:
- Primer punto principal por el que es más conocido, la advertencia sobre la industria armamentística:
Min 6:30 en el vídeo completo:
A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.
Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peace time, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.
Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United State corporations.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual-is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.Spoiler alert: La política exterior de EEUU desde la segunda mitad del siglo XX hasta hoy.
- Segundo. Política económica:
Min 5:40 en el vídeo completo
But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs.
- Balance between the private and the public economy.
- Balance between cost and hoped for advantage.
- Balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable.
- Balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual.
- Balance between action of the moment and the national welfare of the future.
Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.Spoiler: Un par de décadas después vendría Reagan a convertir el temor de Eisenhower en realidad, y detrás vendría Europa.
- Tecnología y democracia:
Min 10:40
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.
It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system-ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.Spoiler: Ahí tenemos al barbas de Twitter (entre otros) siendo "investigado" por influir en procesos políticos a través de su plataforma.
- Por último. Recursos y sostenibilidad ecológica:
Min 11:28
Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we-you and I, and our government-must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.Spoiler: Cambio climático y las perlas que soltó el último presidente de su partido (aka trump) sobre ello.
Espero que le dediquéis un tiempo al discurso y que no os deje indiferentes. Beseleh
