End of the American Empire?
myoung321
Posts: 2,855
Is Covid-19 the beginning of the end of the American Empire?
The Decline and Fall of the American Empire
LINKEven if you don’t think it’s likely, it’s always best to be prepared.
Rome reached its peak of military power around the year 107, when Trajan completed the conquest of Dacia (the territory of modern Romania). With Dacia, the empire peaked in size, but I’d argue it was already past its peak by almost every other measure.
The U.S. reached its peak relative to the world, and in some ways its absolute peak, as early as the 1950s. In 1950 this country produced 50% of the world’s GNP and 80% of its vehicles. Now it’s about 21% of world GNP and 5% of its vehicles. It owned two-thirds of the world’s gold reserves; now it holds one-fourth. It was, by a huge margin, the world’s biggest creditor, whereas now it’s the biggest debtor by a huge margin. The income of the average American was by far the highest in the world; today it ranks about eighth, and it’s slipping.
But it’s not just the U.S.—it’s Western civilization that’s in decline. In 1910 Europe controlled almost the whole world—politically, financially, and militarily. Now it’s becoming a Disneyland with real buildings and a petting zoo for the Chinese. It’s even further down the slippery slope than the U.S.
Like America, Rome was founded by refugees—from Troy, at least in myth. Like America, it was ruled by kings in its early history. Later, Romans became self-governing, with several Assemblies and a Senate. Later still, power devolved to the executive, which was likely not an accident.
U.S. founders modeled the country on Rome, all the way down to the architecture of government buildings, the use of the eagle as the national bird, the use of Latin mottos, and the unfortunate use of the fasces—the axe surrounded by rods—as a symbol of state power. Publius, the pseudonymous author of The Federalist Papers, took his name from one of Rome’s first consuls. As it was in Rome, military prowess is at the center of the national identity of the U.S. When you adopt a model in earnest, you grow to resemble it.
A considerable cottage industry has developed comparing ancient and modern times since Edward Gibbon published The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in 1776—the same year as Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nationsand the U.S. Declaration of Independence were written. I’m a big fan of all three, but D&F is not only a great history, it’s very elegant and readable literature. And it’s actually a laugh riot; Gibbon had a subtle wit.
There have been huge advances in our understanding of Rome since Gibbon’s time, driven by archeological discoveries. There were many things he just didn’t know, because he was as much a philologist as an historian, and he based his writing on what the ancients said about themselves.
continue with link above..
COVID-19: What the Virus Might Do to the American Empire
Under current CV19 lockdowns, there is much quiet time at home in which to reflect on how dramatically the virus is even now changing our familiar New Cold War world, and how such changes will gather force as the weeks of crisis unfold.
Australia is a good place from which to reflect: an excessively obsequious minor member of the U.S.-led anti-Chinese and anti-Russian Western strategic alliance, Australians are also conflicted by our need to earn a living and our obvious economic dependence on our major trading partner and Asia-Pacific strategic neighbor China. Two contradictory imperatives are gnawing at the minds of thinking Australians.
Comments
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
Will we come out of this winners or losers?
What happens in this country if the food supply chain breaks down to the point where it did during the height of the great depression and the worst of WWII?
Can we weather it like our great grandparents did? Something in my gut has me worried that Karen will put on a leather vest and paint her face and go hunting for manflesh.
Add in this poisonous Donald Trump thing and it has hastened our path.
I dont believe the coronavirus changes the hierarchy so to speak. This is bad everywhere.
I do hope that this crisis causes an enlightenment for americans. Everyone realizes the importance of certain federal programs (as opposed to the "destroy! Socialism!" point of view. Maybe we invest and get serious about education and health care. Maybe scientists and facts will gain a stronger foothold in the voices of our country. Maybe we can come together for some obvious enhancements to our government such as campaign reform and term limits for congress?
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
It's interesting, I'll grant you that, but most of us are going to get hit by at least a little of the burning coal, scalding steam, shrapnel, and flying body parts. Have your fun now, but beware!
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
I feel the same way. The other big difference is that under Obama we had hope. Under Trump, we have despair. It's a world of difference.
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
as i said in another thread, trump is giving an entire generation, or maybe 60% of it, PTSD. it is criminal.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
- Carl Bildt
(former prime minister and foreign minister of Sweden)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmp51YN-7wc&t=195s
A boot is crushing the neck of American democracy
Here we go again. Another black person killed by the US police. Another wave of multiracial resistance. Another cycle of race talk on the corporate media. Another display of diversity with neoliberal leaders, and another white backlash soon to come. Yet this time might be a turning point.
The undeniable barbaric death of George Floyd, the inescapable vicious realities of the unequal misery of the coronavirus, the massive unemployment at Depression levels and the wholesale collapse of the legitimacy of political leadership (in both parties) are bringing down the curtain on the American empire.
The increasing militarization of US society is inseparable from its imperial policies (211 deployments of US armed forces in 67 countries since 1945). The militaristic response to the killing of Floyd tells a story of oversized police presence, unprovoked assaults and excessive force. Ironically, the misleading debate over rioters v protesters and outside agitators v legitimate local citizens turns attention away from how heavy law enforcement presence fuels disrespect for the police. The stark contrast of the police response to rightwing provocateurs who show up inside and outside state capitols with guns and loaded ammunition looms large.
I recall my own experience of protesting in Charlottesville, Virginia, against hundreds of masked, armed Nazis with live ammunition in which the police stepped back and remained still and silent as we were mercilessly attacked. Without the intervention and protection of antifa, some of us would have died. Sister Heather Heyer did die. I believe the attack on any innocent person is wrong, but the focus on the protesters’ assaults on persons or property takes our attention away from the police killing of hundreds of black, poor and working-class people.
It also obscures the role of the repressive apparatus in preserving an order so unjust and cruel. The rule of big money, class and gender hierarchies and global militarism must be highlighted in our profound concern with anti-black police murder and brutality.
The four catastrophes Martin Luther King Jr warned us about – militarism (in Asia, Africa and the Middle East), poverty (at record levels), materialism (with narcissistic addictions to money, fame and spectacle) and racism (against black and indigenous people, Muslims, Jews and non-white immigrants) – have laid bare the organised hatred, greed and corruption in the country. The killing machine of the US military here and abroad has lost its authority. The profit-driven capitalist economy has lost its glow. And the glitz of the market-driven culture (including media and education) are more and more hollow.
The fundamental question at this moment is: can this failed social experiment be reformed? The political duopoly of an escalating neofascist Donald Trump-led Republican party and a fatigued Joe Biden-led neoliberal Democratic party – in no way equivalent, yet both beholden to Wall Street and the Pentagon – are symptoms of a decadent leadership class. The weakness of the labor movement and the present difficulty of the radical left to unite around a nonviolent revolutionary project of democratic sharing and redistribution of power, wealth and respect are signs of a society unable to regenerate the best of its past and present. Any society that refuses to eliminate or attenuate dilapidated housing, decrepit school systems, mass incarceration, massive unemployment and underemployment, inadequate healthcare and its violations of rights and liberties is undesirable and unsustainable.
Yet the magnificent moral courage and spiritual sensitivity of the multiracial response to the police killing of George Floyd that now spills over into a political resistance to the legalized looting of Wall Street greed, the plundering of the planet and the degradation of women and LGBTQ+ peoples means we are still fighting regardless of the odds.
If radical democracy dies in America, let it be said of us that we gave our all-and-all as the boots of American fascism tried to crush our necks.
Cornel West is an American philosopher, author, critic, actor, civil rights activist and leading member of Democratic Socialists of America