http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/09/27/as-the-drone-flies/

Seriously, we are in the twilight of human freedom, enjoying the last few minutes in which human beings can actually think thoughts and express them, and even in this extremis of human freedom, supposedly brave critics can barely bring themselves to go beyond mumbling a few bromides about how this or that narrow issue could maybe possibly be a problem some day safely far off in the future, but really probably not, because only grumpy gadflies really worry about such things anyway …

And all that is setting aside obvious other concerns related to militarized ai-driven robotics, concerns related to ai itself, since they would really only concern the ‘elites’. To the rest of us, what does it matter if the roboticized brutality being unleashed on us is coming from Rockefeller or from Robotifeller?

But really, we all knew for decades that Robotics would ultimately take all of our jobs, including skilled work and creative work. For God’s sake, does anyone seriously think that they will be unable to make robots that can make paintings? For decades now we’ve been able to forsee this, and that is just one of the reasons that it is SOOOO significant that our society has become crueler and harsher over the last several decades. Think about how perverse this really is. Just as human labor is becoming steadily less necessary, the fascist ideology that ALL MUST WORK (except for the ‘elites’) has become screechingly transcendent. No one of any political stripe even thinks to question this now fundamental principle. All must work, and their human value is determined by their work (’elites’ aside).

Again, how perverse is this? The less there is work for all, the more we are told that we may live only if we work, and how well we live also depends on our work. Where is this all leading? That’s not hard to figure. It’s leading to hell on earth for most people. No jobs. No sustenance or dignity without jobs, and very little with. Surveillance everywhere. Robotic kill machines everywhere. Most people treated like animals. Elites living in heavenly environments with robotics and slavelike humans taking care of every need.

We are headed for hell, and it was a choice we either made or allowed to be made for us. It didn’t have to be this way. Why did so many of us choose to believe heartless and fascistic notions about what makes a human being worthy of even living, much less prospering?

I’m a little confused about how you are relating this to our (mis)leaders. Here’s an example of how I THINK you are making the connection: let’s take a US (mis)leader who routinely labels American bombs as “humanitarian”, when he or she thinks about them, while labeling other’s bombs as “terrorist”. Possibly, such a (mis)leader creates a kind of self-hypnosis, which makes carnage caused by US bombs nearly invisible to him or her, which in turn makes it much easier for him or her to unleash bombs and carnage. Is that the kind of thing you had in mind?