Securing empire through propaganda

I’m writing a critical review of Mark Neocleous’ 2008 Critique of Security, in which he argues (among other things) that “security” in the modern world has meant the securing of the capitalist political order through the institutionalization of a permanent state of so-called exception.

This understanding makes sense of the longstanding pattern of ignoring or minimizing genuine military and terroristic threats while deeming people, movements, and governments that pose no such danger threats to national security. Only in these terms can we understand today’s absurd and despicable announcement by the Obama administration that Venezuela – whose democratically elected governments the US state has illegally sought for years to overthrow, in plain violation of that country’s popular sovereignty – is now classified as a national security threat. To the US. Irony Watch, indeed.

I’m beginning to wonder if there exists any claim about Latin America* so cynical and implausible that the US government, corporate media, or public would balk at it. Worryingly, there doesn’t appear to be.

* (or, alternatively, about allies like Saudi Arabia)