Mercenaryism and how we can fight it?

[The Red Star Rising]

I've never had a very high view of mercenaries (my admiration for some heroic fictional ones like Samus Aran notwithstanding) and I find their continuation into the present day to be appalling. Going beyond simple war profiteering like the arms industry to killing and dying for fun and profit.

Now, my question is how can I best convince people that A: PMCs are mercenaries by any other name coming back in a big way after fading from the limelight in the 1800s and first half of the 20th century, and B. That Mercenary work is quite simply an inexcusable phenomenom, a profession that sullies the world with it's presence.

Stripping away the glamor of mercenaries and showing the ugly truth about what amount to killers for hire would be excellent, whether it's the modern incarnation of the mercenary or his earlier brethren. Mercenaries are already a somewhat unpopular part of the world, but I'm hoping that there's some way to tip the balance of public opinion completely against them. If the people will no longer allow soldiers for hire among them, that's one less problem the world has to deal with.

I'd also like to see if there have been any socialist analyses of the profession and it's failings.

[Zoroaster]

You fight the mercenaries like how you fight capitalism: through social revolution.

[Hermes]

I'm not sure there is an effective way to do so, especially on a large scale, and considering the public attitude towards other institutions like the police or the military. I'm not sure what can be recommended when even large movements like the anti-war crowd have made a pretty miniscule impact in the culture, though I could be mistaken.

People seem to love seeing other people fight the country's enemies, even if they have no idea what that means, who they are, how it's done, etc.

--

not mentioning that 'it pays for college' or just 'it pays well' is a sufficient reason for most people going into any of it

[khad]

Short of rounding up every single mercenary and shooting him/her in the face, I don't see how this is feasible in today's political and economic landscape.

We are facing a bumper crop of mercenaries because of various challenges eroding the strength of national governments since the fall of the USSR. When you have downsizing militaries leaving lots of armed men unemployed and a thousand brushfire wars popping up left and right, the market will match the skills to the buyer. If you ban PMCs from operating in one country, they'll just relocate to another and continue to recruit its operators on an individual contractual basis.

If anything, the geostrategic stability that the Cold War afforded far fewer opportunities for these kinds of activities to flourish. What you had for much of the 20th century was a historical anomaly.

[EoLE]

As far as I'm concerned this is going to get a whole lot worse before it gets any better. Even if the mainstream left starts to wake up and electorally challenge capitalists they'll just do what they did in New York during Occupy, give a sizable donation to their nearest police department to go out and bust some heads. In every police force and military unit there are people who must sometimes question all this but even they believe they are, overall, doing a good thing by maintaining the status quo of society. Even if only because after the fall of the Soviet Union (which was not very desirable anyway) There Is No Alternative (the T.I.N.A fallacy).
People need to be shown, peacefully, that there is another way to organise allocation of resources and for humans to live without f***ing each other over all the time. But even if that were successful so that police and military started to become class conscious and turn away from capital the capitalists would still have the option of foregoing any pretense of 'patriotism' or 'civic duty' and say 'F**k you then" to the police and army and simply pay an outside 3rd party group like PMCs.

[The Red Star Rising]

As far as I'm concerned this is going to get a whole lot worse before it gets any better. Even if the mainstream left starts to wake up and electorally challenge capitalists they'll just do what they did in New York during Occupy, give a sizable donation to their nearest police department to go out and bust some heads. In every police force and military unit there are people who must sometimes question all this but even they believe they are, overall, doing a good thing by maintaining the status quo of society. Even if only because after the fall of the Soviet Union (which was not very desirable anyway) There Is No Alternative (the T.I.N.A fallacy).
People need to be shown, peacefully, that there is another way to organise allocation of resources and for humans to live without f***ing each other over all the time. But even if that were successful so that police and military started to become class conscious and turn away from capital the capitalists would still have the option of foregoing any pretense of 'patriotism' or 'civic duty' and say 'F**k you then" to the police and army and simply pay an outside 3rd party group like PMCs.
At the very least, as it stands; PMCs going against a National Army of note would end terribly for the PMC due to restrictions against heavy weapons such as tanks and fighters. However I am concerned that some pro-big business politicians will buddy up to their PMC friends to loosen restrictions on letting PMCs having access to bigger and badder weapons to ensure "peace". While it seems a tad unlikely now I generally like to hedge bets.

[EoLE]

At the very least, as it stands; PMCs going against a National Army of note would end terribly for the PMC due to restrictions against heavy weapons such as tanks and fighters. However I am concerned that some pro-big business politicians will buddy up to their PMC friends to loosen restrictions on letting PMCs having access to bigger and badder weapons to ensure "peace". While it seems a tad unlikely now I generally like to hedge bets.

Agreed. And I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing that any future struggle against our governments and business will have to be peaceful now, simply because no public revolution like those of old could stand up to the might of nation state military forces today in countries like the US.

[The Red Star Rising]

Agreed. And I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing that any future struggle against our governments and business will have to be peaceful now, simply because no public revolution like those of old could stand up to the might of nation state military forces today in countries like the US.
Barring part of the first world militaries defecting armed guerillas aren't going to overwhelm most first world militaries unless they are very severely weakened and crippled by other circumstances. Depending on how far along Warbot programs go, we may be able to convince the majority of the humans in the militaries of the world to join the cause but still have a massive civil war on our hands. .