I would disagree that it’s more pragmatic. Decentralised autonomous cells are a key part of modern military strategy, and there are examples of horizontally organised militias being extremely effective against nominally superior centralised forces. Rojava and the Zapatistas are two excellent examples of societies without a ruling class that have defended themselves in spite of extreme opposition.
The centralised command structure is necessary to maintain a military that are goons for the ruling class.
The interesting part of this development is not that they are goons - you’re right that that’s implicit in the command structure - but that the government has said out loud that they should be goons and nothing else. It’s one of those moments where the mask of civility slipped.
I would disagree that it’s more pragmatic. Decentralised autonomous cells are a key part of modern military strategy, and there are examples of horizontally organised militias being extremely effective against nominally superior centralised forces. Rojava and the Zapatistas are two excellent examples of societies without a ruling class that have defended themselves in spite of extreme opposition.
The centralised command structure is necessary to maintain a military that are goons for the ruling class.
The interesting part of this development is not that they are goons - you’re right that that’s implicit in the command structure - but that the government has said out loud that they should be goons and nothing else. It’s one of those moments where the mask of civility slipped.