The Politics Intentions Behind Weapons

Nowadays, the world and the societies that we live in are regulated by a set of rules fixed by the governments. Politics are the power that control and maintain the human behavior. Thus, the implementation of certain technologies within the society can be either neutral and, in some cases, they can have certain intentions, uses and politics. In this brief essay, we will discuss how weapons; a result of human engineering contain politics itself.

Thousands of years ago, humans used to hunt in order to eat and survive. Materials such as arrows and bows made out of wood were used. However, the time changed, and the “use” of these materials changed as well. We went from survival kit to self-defense. Materials made out of wood became weapons made out of bronze and metal. Weapons are now used by police officers and they are also used by criminals. “Self-defense” materials got upgraded and now, that we are in 2018, several countries are in possession of weapons of mass destruction. The main point here is that as technology has emerged across history, weapons have changed with it. In the previous paragraph we talked briefly about the history of weapons while pointing out that technology was the reason for this development. Thus, social determination of technology and the theory of technological politics come to play. By definition, social determination of technology is the idea that the society determines its design and implementation while being neutral when integrated into a social and economic system.

On the other hand, the theory that states that technologies are designed with certain intentions, uses and politics is the theory of technological politics. Weapons can be considered a mix of these two theories. When weapons were first used and invented, there was no intentions in including any political ideas because they were used for survival purposes. However, political ideas got developed on its own with the time. Weapons turned into something much more complex when they were introduced to the society. Criminals use them to steal, to kill and police officers use them for self-defense. In Lawrence Lessig’s article, “Code is law”, he talks about the liberty in cyberspace and how governments can contain and control this “liberty”. In Canada weapons are forbidden, only law enforcement officers and military officers can use them. However, in the United-States weapons are legal and people can purchase them. The crime rate is very high, but the government does not seem to care enough. Why? The business of selling weapons brings billions of dollars to the table. Being a nuclear weapon state makes your country a strong and a powerful one that can control the world because everyone fears you. Furthermore, wars around the world happen for a simple reason; which is the business of selling weapons. Political parties claim that weapons facilities are not state-owned but private. Then why does the government legalize weapons if it does not bring them any profits to the table? Finally, democracy, equality and liberty are the main political values in America. Liberty and equality by allowing people to possess materials than can kill others.

In a nutshell, technologies have politics embedded in them since they can create and represent certain forms of power and authority in many different ways. The object that is the outcome of the technology can be either developed neutrally with no aims to the society but on the other hand, it can be created with the purpose of causing an effect on the society. Weapons were clearly first developed with no aims. However, as discussed it turned to become a business model.