Smedley Butler, while the recipient of 2 Medals of Honor, became exhausted by being used as a tool to kill and oppress people in other countries on behalf of US foreign policy that largely consisted of the interests of US companies. (Monroe doctrine, colonialism, etc.)
"Those who fail to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors . . ."
It goes to show that human nature is timeless and under-regulated capitalists tend to promote illiberal, fascist, corrupt, lawless authoritarian styles of government rather than democratic order.
Another good book tangentially related from a different author is The Dual State: A Contribution to the Theory of Dictatorship that discusses how most of a populace and/or favored people in a repressive regime enjoy apparent continuity of justice and same or better privileges than previously while others are subjected to a parallel covert or overt different set of rules, justice, and privileges.
