World War II nations secured sacrificial war service through promises of lifetime social security

Evidence

It would be very interesting to study this set of documents, analyses, programs, and researchfor itself; because it seems to me tllat,ifI am not mistaken, this is the first: t:Lm.~ that entire nations waged war on the basis ofa system of pacts which were not justinternational alliances between powers, but ‘social pacts ofa kind that promised-=to those who were asked to go, to war and get themselves killed-a certain type ofeconomic and’social organization which assured security ( of employment, with regard to illness and other kinds of risk and at the level of retirement): they were pacts of security at th~ moment of a demand for war. The demand for war on the part of governments is accompanied-and very quickly; there are texts on the theme from 1940-by this offer of a social pact and security. — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 1124

Categorization

• SEED: An essay angle: how the ‘pact of war’ — kill yourself now and we guarantee lifetime employment — inverts into today’s demands that retirees sacrifice for austerity.
• SHARE: A sharp genealogical observation a political-theory colleague would appreciate.
• XREF: connects to: War abroad functions as domestic social control; State dependence on soldiers’ bodies secured social bargaining power; Protecting national lives in war increases those lives’ social precariousness (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• War abroad functions as domestic social control #expands (0.85)
• Protecting national lives in war increases those lives’ social precariousness #corroborates (0.78)
• Postwar reconstructionists saw the war’s social gains as a foundation for permanent social justice #qualifies (0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 240
• State dependence on soldiers’ bodies secured social bargaining power #complicates (0.72)