American
Empire
I
don't mean to sound alarmist, but
as I watch and read about
political events unfolding I'm
reminded of Frederico Fellini's
1970's-era film
"Satyricon", which
depicts a brutish, violent,
surreal world of debauchery and
despair set within the decay of
the declining Roman Empire. Nothing
throughout made sense, as chaos
and confrontation had long before
replaced civilized discourse in a
scenario dealing with the
primordial dark side of humanity,
and to this day I'm afraid to see
it again. Witness then my alarm
as the world, both near and far,
begins to resemble Fellini's
vision of the corruption of the
soul as darkness descended upon
mankind.
Do
I think we are on the verge of
reentering the Dark Ages? I ask
you. As occurred then, the
advances of humanity, crafted by
the great Egyptian and Greek
civilizations, were reversed by
the specters of religious
zealotry and political
intolerance filling the void left
by the crumbling Roman Empire.
Enlightenment swiftly receded
as world order broke down,
ushering in centuries of
inquisitions and crusades.
Disease ravaged the populations
of entire continents, and base
tribal instincts buried civil
society under the ash of violence
and despair. Sound familiar? How
about this? The prevailing empire
had become overly extended
abroad, and overtly consumptive,
self-absorbed and culturally
decadent at home. The greatest
empire of all time came crashing
down as a result of values that
clashed with the "natural
order" of human existence,
clearing the way for a thousand
years of barbarism.
What
about today? Well, in addition to
the aforementioned realities, our
society is also fractured
along class lines, the government
is run by captains of commerce,
and the wealthiest most
influential state in the Union
-California- is bankrupt and
spinning off toward political and
fiscal chaos. The inequities of
capitalism have ravaged the
middle class, the president used
false pretenses as an excuse to
invade Iraq, and the Supreme
Court has decreed that
discrimination is alright as long
as Caucasians are the victims. We
have been forced to cut spending
for the education and health of
our children so as to fund tax
relief for the wealthy, while
runaway immigration is turning
cities into teeming,
resourse-draining barrios. On the
international stage, we find
ourselves (or will soon find
ourselves) depleting the national
treasure so as to placate South
Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan,
Liberia, Congo, Pakistan,
Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Saudi
Arabia, Kuwait, Bosnia, Kosovo,
Quatar, the Philippines...with
the only thanks to be expected
upon mission completion will be
shouts of "Yankee Go Home!!
(And take me with you)."
There
are our usual hold-over Cold War
adversaries, China and Russia,
neither of whom can be trusted
with anything, and economic giant
Japan continues to be mired in a
decades-long recession that
renders it irrelevant, unable to
help or offer anything other than
humility. Even our European
allies (with the exception of
England) delight in American
confusion of clarity, so impotent
and fearful of American power and
influence that spite remains
their only contribution to world
order. Islamic fundamentalism
remains an imminent threat,
changing aspects of our lives
previously taken for granted,
from air travel to civil rights.
Ethiopia is starving (as usual)
and Mexico is mad at us over
immigration policies (as usual).
Latin America seems to be having
second thoughts about the
inherent constraints of democracy
and blames the United States for
foisting it upon them. Africa
screams for American troops to be
plopped into the middle of its
various brutal civil wars and
ethnic cleansing in the name of
"national security".
The deranged Fascist dwarf
that rules North Korea continues
to threaten everyone with nuclear
holocaust for no apparant reason,
and seemingly every human being
in the incendiary, underdeveloped
Third (and Fourth) World carries
an AK-47. That's Satyricon...
As
the age of darkness approaches,
only the American Empire stands
in its way--a bright beacon
against the blackness of anarchy.
But the right values are even
more critical than an
overpowering military. This is
our challenge, because as the
Romans discovered, without the
former, the latter is merely a
temporary hedge against decadence
and ruin.
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