With the complete range of cybernetic discoveries to hand, it is always possible to analyze a situation from the point of view of its regulatory phenomena. According to the cybernetician, the purpose of a system is what it does. This is a basic dictum. It stands for a bald fact, which makes a better starting point in seeking understanding than the familiar attributions of good intentions, prejudices about expectations, moral judgments, or sheer ignorance of circumstances.

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What the system inaugurated on September 11th has actually done is to provoke retaliation against yet another poor country, Afghanistan, on the principle that might is right. In doing so, the United States may well seem to have abandoned the principles of justice that it has proclaimed. The outcome, which was predictable, is that the opponents of the United States are in the position to proclaim a jihad, a holy war. It is safest to assume that this was the objective from the beginning. The purpose of the system is what it does.

Stafford Beer: What is cybernetics?