The Decline and Fall of the American Empire

America was great, but a third of the country was run by terrorists. The other two-thirds, after decades of waffling and unconscionable delays, finally insisted that the oppression end in "Dixie," the terrorist sub-state, in the 1960's, and that the subjugated minority be free.

Capitalists and corporatists then seized power through an alliance with the disaffected inhabitants of "Dixie," anti-democrats, racists and reconstituted rebels (just add desegregation--and stand back). The tactic worked and the American state sank.

Into decline, that is, wanton consumerism and moral decay, marked by compulsion, recklessness, frenzied activity and denial, the sad drive to be as big a pig as possible before it all ends in an orgy of vicariousness, inauthenticity and second-hand experiences. 

Sex and money, though, are pursued first-hand. Empires usually last about 250 years. We were supposed to be an anti-imperial country and immune to this. Also it was thought that knowing the cycle of empires would enable us to avoid it, but we have succumbed.

Those who asserted that we are exceptional and insisted on it have doomed us to an imperial end. Boo, hiss. We're now on the path of "decline and fall" and not an exception. Exceptionally bad, perhaps, because of our power and the falseness of it.

We should say to the world honestly, like good imperialists: "We take what we want. Don't stand in our way."