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Empire of the Sunset
Sometimes, I really miss America -- or at least the idea of it. You know: that can-do spirit, streets paved with gold, champion of the tired and poor, purple mountains majesty, that sort of thing. Say what you will, and call it naïve, but the storybook values at the heart of America's erstwhile image are inspiring.
Like most who grew up here, I was steeped in the lore and legend of this place. Despite obvious flaws in the narrative (how exactly does one ‘discover' land upon which others are living, anyway?) there existed a strong sense that at the end of the day some part of our cherished ideals would emerge in time to set things right. Principles like due process, free speech, the work ethic, checks and balances, equal opportunity, and the pursuit of happiness held meaning if only as a reminder that our collective lives stood for something and that our destinies were in our own hands. It may well have been an illusion all along, yet even the most cynical among us likely believed in the underlying ethos at some point in time.
Unfortunately, that America -- even in its illusory state -- has ceased to exist. We are no longer an abstract beacon of hope to the world, but rather a purveyor of concrete hellfire. We rain automated death from above and commit orchestrated theft from below. We export despair and import disdain. We've abandoned even keeping up the pretense of fair play and adherence to principle. We've become global pariahs and domestic piranhas. Awash in a sea of surfaces, distractions, and palliatives, we unsurprisingly have failed to notice that the sun has already started to set on our adolescent empire.
Indeed, by most measures, the U.S. is rapidly becoming a failed state. Educationally, economically, politically, culturally -- all of our national gauges are pointing in the wrong direction. We're moving down the list on health care, democratic governance, productivity, environmental protection, academic achievement, official transparency, incarceration rates, transportation, and public services. We're ruled by an increasingly emboldened elite class that rewrites the rules at will, increasingly represses dissent, and openly enriches itself at our expense. We hardly make anything on these shores, but still consume everything in sight. We have few public intellectuals of renown, yet are bombarded daily with the foibles of celebrities who are in many cases famous simply for being famous. Our food supply is tainted, our energy is unclean, and our water is drying up. And racism remains as deeply-rooted as ever.
It's not a pretty picture from inside the belly of the beast these days. But never fear, for America has a secret weapon at its disposal that will keep us in the driver's seat for a while longer. Our secret weapon, actually, isn't so secret: weapons. The days of guile, comity, and negotiation are over. Empires don't dicker, they simply take what they want. They don't ask permission or forge alliances, they make demands and extort loyalties under threat of repercussions. They don't cede oversight authority to any international community, or even feel constrained by their own laws and rules, but instead act by fiat and in flagrant disregard of treaty and protocol. Empires, in short, follow the empty logic of "might makes right."
The ruling elite in the U.S. have made it eminently clear that this is our prevailing strategy going forward. We will utilize brute force to retain our position as the global superpower even as we have lost our moral and cultural suasion. America's tenure as a fully imperialist power is barely over a century old, its position as a true superpower about half that, and its status as sole hegemon about half that still. In a mere few decades, we've gone from savior to enslaver, from bastion to bastards, from heroic to horrific. Whatever historical good will we may have accrued has been squandered in a frenzy of hubris and hatred.
Perhaps I'm being a bit obdurate here, so let me clarify things a bit. Empires that reach this point of no return, in which power subsumes principle, are essentially on their last legs. Legitimacy can be replaced by subjugation for a time, but it is always self-defeating in the end. While history is unequivocal about this, it's also true that the recorded annals have never seen an empire quite like the one we've created. By slowly and steadily insinuating ourselves economically and militarily into the affairs of nearly every nation on the planet, we've built an ingenious system in which recalcitrance is very nearly a form of suicide. If this empire falls, it threatens to take everyone with it in the process, thus perpetuating the unspoken but widely understood mantra: "You're either with us ... or else."
Consider the sheer totality of the U.S. military presence around the planet. Hundreds of bases are spread across every continent -- effectively functioning as sovereign satellites of American influence -- with a preponderance located in vanquished nations such as Germany, Japan, Iraq, and Afghanistan. These are now our chief exports: military bases, hardware, and soldiers. We've also weaponized space and created an automated execution network that circumnavigates the globe, bringing push-button "justice" to anyone we deem a viable target (including our own citizens). Now we're developing fully-functional robot soldiers to continue the dehumanization of warfare in our stead, which will serve our purpose of fostering submission through fear equally well whether they in fact work properly or not.
Domestically, the agenda has been set. The power elite have now "doubled down" on this strategy of maintaining supremacy through force. Military strategy documents point toward a future of perpetual warfare and relentless competition over dwindling resources, with the highest ideal of "national security" represented by our unmitigated capacity to impose our will on multiple fronts at once. Increasing episodes of disaster, such as in Haiti, will be used overtly as "Trojan horse" moments to expand our military footprint under the guise of humanitarianism. Our federal budgets will concretize all of this with escalating military expenditures coupled with frozen austerity in all other spheres. The military is sacrosanct and, moreover, is now the lone remaining chip to be played in the game of global conquest.
It certainly seems like a grim scenario, one that stands in stark contrast to the idyllic (albeit ersatz) America of our youth. It also begs us to consider what will become of young people growing up in tomorrow's America, devoid as it likely will be of even a redeeming ideological veneer. Will the future populace here be comprised of equal parts swaggering "ugly Americans" and withdrawn, apathetic technophiles? Will we have an America in which people either embrace our military superiority and martial character as a moral virtue on the one hand, or are constrained to immerse themselves in our cultural distractions as a refuge from the emerging security panopticon on the other? In other words, will those ensuing Americans face delimited choices that come down to either institutionalized anger or repressed angst?
I wonder if people living under the auspices of failing empires throughout history have felt similarly. The silver lining (there has to be one, right?) is that all previous empires have fallen and the sun still came up the next day. Indeed, as surely as anything else we can count on in this life, sunset is inevitably followed by sunrise. Whether anyone will be here to see that new day dawning is an open question, and one that we might consider as something of a cultural crucible at this point. Perhaps that apocryphal America from a bygone day can yet be resurrected, only this time for real and not merely as an ideal. In my mind's eye, I can envision a door opening up ahead even as the one behind us closes.
- Posted in
158 Comments so far
Show AllFinally. The post that actually dares to tell the truth.
I wonder how many here will really understand it?
I agree. This is the most dead-on analysis of our situation that I've ever read.
Indeed. I read every word of this article (something I don't necessarily always do), and I didn't disagree with a single sentence. Professor Amster has created an accurate synopsis of what many others have been trying to say for awhile now.
obdurate??
There may be a sunrise after the sunset, but it will probably be several millenia of night due to nuclear winter and poison gases and a violent mother nature struggling to restore the earth to some kind of ecosystem that sustains life larger than a cockroach.
Will there be a human being to witness that sunrise? I wouldn't bet money on it.
But understand that as the empire falls; many Will NOT see the light of the following day! Mostly, its serfs.
Humbaba June 19th, 2009 11:25 pm
I think the Buddah put his finger on it when he said "all is imperminate" except death and corrupt politicians.
Where is Alexis de Tocqueville to write his sequel "Hypocracy in America?"
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
---Ozymandias, Percy Bysshe Shelley
What a delightful ride through dictionaryland! I especially loved "(albeit ersatz)" - What a great name for a rock band or someone's offspring!
I'm sure many of us have had similar thoughts and concerns, but the level of vicarious consonance had me kittled with an aura of divination.
Seriously, thank you! I think you made my day.
Empires come and go. Twas ever thus, and this one, too, shall pass.
The danger may well be in the passing, and instead of a relatively benign disintegration-a devolution- like the British Empire and more recently, the Soviet, there may well be a nihilistic desire to end it all- the armageddonists devout wish. A self fulfilling prophecy in the ludicrous hope of some saviour returning.
In the days of cannon balls, sabres and horse charges, the fall of empire was just another chapter turned. Now, with fundamentalists beliefs and nuclear weapons, its a receipe for extinction.
I am so saddened by what I see happening to you there- I wish I could help. There is so much that is good, that is worth preserving. But your belief in myth- whether in a Norman Rockwell America, or religious insanity, racism, together with greed, violence, no committment to the common good and collective stupidity, is what is destroying you. It seems, as Yeats wrote, the good lack all committment while the worst are full of passionate intensity.
What is happening is, as Empirical history will attest, sooner or later, inevitable. The fact remains, empires rise up, decay and fall. Its not a question of IF, just When. Only the How is in doubt.
What's left will be anyones guess. I'm hoping, as some one who considers himself a friend, that something of worth will be left behind, amidst the depleted uranium shells and the ashes.
Bill in Canada
Bill, that was one great post.
Thanks Tom. Keep hope alive.
-Bill
I was struck by your quote from Yeats, as I'm often reminded of lines from his "The Second Coming" these days. The title, in fact, may be less familiar than many of the lines (Things fall apart; the center cannot hold.) Yeats wrote this following World War I. I don't believe he was an dominionist,"End Times" type of guy, however. His message, although sounding despairing, is clearly meant to be more of a warning; yet here we are, many preventable wars and disasters later, all crowded into less than a century.
I was struck by your quote from Yeats, as I'm often reminded of lines from his "The Second Coming" these days. The title, in fact, may be less familiar than many of the lines (Things fall apart; the center cannot hold.) Yeats wrote this following World War I. I don't believe he was an dominionist,"End Times" type of guy, however. His message, although sounding despairing, is clearly meant to be more of a warning; yet here we are, many preventable wars and disasters later, all crowded into less than a century.
Maddiemom: I'm not a believer in prophesies but I share your thoughts on "The Second Coming". Chilling. And we're not listening.
-Bill
I started humming a Bob Dylan song while reading your post. Let me share his words...
I will not go down under the ground
"Cause somebody tells me that death's comin' 'round
An' I will not carry myself down to die
When I go to my grave my head will be high,
Let me die in my footsteps
Before I go down under the ground.
There's been rumors of war and wars that have been
The meaning of the life has been lost in the wind
And some people thinkin' that the end is close by
"Stead of learnin' to live they are learning to die.
Let me die in my footsteps
Before I go down under the ground.
I don't know if I'm smart but I think I can see
When someone is pullin' the wool over me
And if this war comes and death's all around
Let me die on this land 'fore I die underground.
Let me die in my footsteps
Before I go down under the ground.
There's always been people that have to cause fear
They've been talking of the war now for many long years
I have read all their statements and I've not said a word
But now Lawd God, let my poor voice be heard.
Let me die in my footsteps
Before I go down under the ground.
If I had rubies and riches and crowns
I'd buy the whole world and change things around
I'd throw all the guns and the tanks in the sea
For they are mistakes of a past history.
Let me die in my footsteps
Before I go down under the ground.
Let me drink from the waters where the mountain streams flood
Let me smell of wildflowers flow free through my blood
Let me sleep in your meadows with the green grassy leaves
Let me walk down the highway with my brother in peace.
Let me die in my footsteps
Before I go down under the ground.
Go out in your country where the land meets the sun
See the craters and the canyons where the waterfalls run
Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Idaho
Let every state in this union seep in your souls.
And you'll die in your footsteps
Before you go down under the ground.
Bill in Canada:
I'm asking honestly now: Is Canada that much better? Its environmental law doesn't seem especially advanced. Does Big Money control the largest parties pretty much? And are those prairie provinces politically that much different from North Dakota? I used to think Canada was a haven, but now I am not so sure.
You're right, Drosera. We're more like you than not. We have a Prime Minister who is a fundamentalist Christian, who believes people walked with dinosaurs. His government has moved our foreign policy in line with the U.S., on Israel, trade, the environment- against the opinion of the majority of us. His stand at Copenhagen disgusts many of us, though not all. His unequivocal support of Israel is a sea change for Canadian foreign policy. Our troops are in Afghanistan, killing and dying in a war not supported by the majority of Canadians and which he has not allowed Parliamentary debate on- though to be fair, the committment was made by a previous governement.
We used to consider ourselves honest brokers between factions, even peace makers. No more. We have, and always had, an equal share of racists, fundamentalist loonies, gun toting red necked bigots, homophobics, xenophobics and the list goes on. I suppose most countries do. And like you, we have our share of people that inspire us and make us, and the world, proud. Canadians overwhelmingly rejoiced with the election of President Obama, as did most of the world. And despite the problems and setbacks, most of us still do.
We do have, as our tax supported health care system will attest, at least some committment to the common good, which you seem to lack there, and some measure of tolerance albeit much of it State imposed. We could certainly use your First Amendment, though you can keep the Second.
We're tied to you. We share the longest border, a common history and ancestry, language, trade- all of it. We play our games together, vacation together, and share families, mine included. Where you're going, for better or worse, we're following close behind. We're too small for Empire, without nuclear weapons, and there's only 32 million of us in a vast and mostly empty land- that's very cold for at least six months a year. We're all too smug, complacent for the most part, apathetic, perhaps too polite and increasingly disengaged from politics- witness our increasingly dismal voter turnout. And we believe many of our own myths as well. As I said at the beginning, we're more like you than not. And in the end, we'll throw our lot in with you. We'd be foolish to do otherwise.
I do sincerely wish we-I- could help in some way. Especially now and especially this President.
-Bill
Thank you for this. I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, when the USSR was this lawless land, with oppressive government, no free speech, political show trials, boasts of being the best at everything, a "workers' paradise", with sophisticated military industries but failed consumer industries, all wrapped in an iron curtain through which information and truth could not penetrate. That all now describes the USA. Sadly. This essay is literate, and it was a pleasure to read, both for content and form. But it seems that much of the problem in America is the loss of sense to words. The President can say that we are going to eliminate rule of law in order to protect our freedoms. And the whole Congress gives a standing ovation to that. We are going to intensify the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan because foreign fighters are attacking the US forces in those countries. And Congress gives standing ovation. We are going to depose the elected president of Haiti and we are going to help Israel kill the elected leaders of the Palestinians, in order to promote democracy in Haiti and Gaza. And Congress gives a standing ovation. Sadly.
"This essay is literate, and it was a pleasure to read, both for content and form. But it seems that much of the problem in America is the loss of sense to words."
*********
Serious Citizen,
I could not agree more. This essay is very similar in both tone and writing quality to many pieces by Chris Hedges, whose fine book, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle, echoes these themes, as well.
Outstanding op-ed! I'm already thinking post-empire and I'm so pleased to read a work by someone who looks at what's happening now in the cold, hard light of reality, and rejects the pompous bull-manure so many in the two wings of the War Party might use to obfusticate the facts.
Well said Prof. Amster. You wrote with conviction and clarity. But... Empires may fall but they can also alter and become something else. As with Britain a commonwealth instead of empire.
But you are quite right about how the corporate plutocracy is determined to secure its place with military might. We outspend everybody by several factors. We have five or more (consider Nigeria) wars ongoing. We are threatening Iran. We are ignoring the Palestinians while funding an Israel that commits genocide. As we do other nations oppressing often its own people.
And yet Americans seem indifferent. Obvious to what is going on. Too ensnarled in their own little rat-race, in their games and clothes and endless cell phone chatter to give a damn about what their own country is doing overseas -- and here in this country itself.
Maybe history IS deterministic and this empire will crumble. but then maybe not. We can learn from history not only does it repeat but it also innovates. New directions come about. New endings can be written. Things do change, and usually for the better (if not lately).
So forgive me if I retain some dim optimism for the future.
It helps me sleep at night.
Gary
“Necessity is not an established fact, but an interpretation.”
-- Friedrich Nietzsche
Well said, Gary. I think we all hope you're right. But perhaps you'll agree that time is running out.
-Bill in Canada
I certainly agree the clock is ticking and the fuse is getting shorter (did I miss any other clichés?). The Earth is literally choking and burning up from our sh!t. The population, already short of food, continues to rise. Energy is running out just when, allowing for controlling the thermal pollution, more is needed for developing countries. The financial system is in free-fall, while people try to open a non-existent emergency chute. Oh, hell, the list goes on and on.
It scares the hell out of me that, as with the environment, we may have already reached the tipping points for all these problems. Maybe we are in the final slide. My gut says otherwise, but how smart is it? But even if we are in an unstoppable slide, we can still try to steer away from the trees.
Gary
"Not only is another world possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing."
-- Arudhati Roy
>>>>"And yet Americans seem indifferent. Obvious to what is going on. Too ensnarled in their own little rat-race, in their games and clothes and endless cell phone chatter to give a damn about what their own country is doing overseas -- and here in this country itself."
Actually, it may be that most Americans are more absorbed with just keeping food on the table, a roof over their heads, a few bucks in the bank account to cover horrendous drug and health care costs, not to mention just getting the minimum payment on their CC paid for necessities they had no cash to pay with. In short, just keeping body and soul together for yet another day. Perhaps those are the things they are "ensnarled in".
Well said, Gary.
My optimism is similar to yours. As things get worse more people begin to awaken from their slumbers. Personal growth, change and new direction generally don't happen from a place of comfort. The indifference of people here in America that you speak of comes from a place of comfort, among some other things. And as the economy gets worse the people who are greatly affected are shaken out of their comfort zones. This is a perfect moment for growth and change. And, of course, not everybody will take this opportunity for growth, and will instead harden their positions. My optimism comes from a personal feeling (no facts, just a day to day experience with people) that there are more people beginning to choose to AWAKEN from their slumbers, than the ones who are hardening their positions. Some days my optimism is high and other days I think we are just screwed. All I can do to stay sane in this insane world is focus on the positive and assist others who are ready for this awakening.
"Unfortunately, that America -- even in its illusory state -- has ceased to exist. We are no longer an abstract beacon of hope to the world, but rather a purveyor of concrete hellfire."
Were we a beacon of hope to the millions of native americans who were slaughtered; the Africans who were rounded up and sold as slaves; the Mexicans who had 1/2 their country stolen; the millions upon millions of people throughout the Caribbean, Central and South America who have had their land stolen, their resources plundered, their leaders assassinated or removed from power, and who have had to live with American funded death squads roaming the country side; the Philippines, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians, Indonesians, & Timorese who suffered under the hands of US militarism to the point where their countries may never be able to develop; etc etc etc... The world will be a better place when the imaginary narrative of American greatness is replaced with the real narrative of the hundreds of millions of people who have suffered for our greatness.
My sentiments exactly. This delusion of America the Beautiful never existed and the sooner people face this cold, hard truth, the sooner we can move forward and perhaps heal some of the damage we have done to the rest of the planet. Of course, this is probably a delusion too.
as Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr said:
"I Must with great shame and sadness say that the greatest purveyor of Violence in the world today is my own country and government"...
economic violence, cultural violence, military violence, resource violence. spiritual and intellectual and moral violence.
America = Violence.
i recall that even when I was a child in the philippines in the 60's - long before today's overtly unapologetic imperial violence - practiced both domestically and abroad - that it was quite COMMON to hear in conversations - as easily as "america is rich" ...
"america is a VIOLENT country".
i now know, in full, it WAS and IS true.
I believe apathy and angst best describes Americans sentiments. We are in a prison in which even educators feel defeated from a barrage of attacks from institutions that demand obedience or face poverty. As an educator in one of the poorest sectors of America, the south bronx, new york, this is a feeling well known and accepted by the population of this area. It is unfortunate that mobilization and organization has become idealistic and far from realistic by a major part of society. However, I still believe in a major turnaround by the people. Well written professor.
Pablo...
I want to re-relate an incident that happened to me several years ago...it was after 9/11.
i was going home one sunday midnight from doing some extra work preparing programmes for a piano recital I was giving for some old people in a nursing home..i was dressed quite well from sunday work..being so tired...i was reading a book ad put my feet up on the empty seat in an empty car in a subway train going home...on a stop - a policeman cited me to put my foot down...which I did. but he didn';t stop there.
step by step - he commanded me:
to "please stand up sir"
"please walk this way , sir"
"please step out of the car, sir"
"please turn around sir"
Patted me
"what's in your bag sir".
etc...before I knew It - i was in handcuffs , up the stairs, out to the street, into a waiting police car, into some remote , small police station, i fingerprinted, my belongings taken, put in a very cold cell for hours..
later transfered through a long trip into brookly "central" - through a side-alley. down to the cellar cells..packed in with other prisoners tightly in the filthy cells, not even fed water or anything, questions unanswered...
all of us chained together when they transfered us to an adjoining cell - no reasons...lay down in a fetal position on the filthy floor on the only space for my body , with my head right under the toilet seat..another man standing on the "space" for 2 feet by my stomach..another leaning with his head only on the wall, standing over me...everyone was in some twisted position like that...for all night...
morning we were transfered "upstairs" into a windowless, huge room, with the sun heating it up..a huge electric fan right outside the cell door that the police just a few feet away downstairs ignored screams to turn it on...
my job on THAT following Monday never knew what happened to me..i was supposed to give a recital that same or the next week .
nearing the "24th" hour of holding...we were led downstairs to see our "public defendants"...
lining up to see through a tiny window some lawyer. mine was a young , irish-accented lawyer, and when SHE opened my file, exclaimed loudly:
"OH MY GOD! this is the worst thing I ever saw...don't worry, we'll get you out".
it appears they were "fishing" for ANYTHING to justify the arrest itself..and found I long ago forgot to pay a 30 dollar fine for putting up fliers for music gigs when I was studying near columbia university, whcih most people there do that.
the judge, who was young - after looking at my "case" ..in less than a minute , told me to stand up . and said:
"sir - your case is dismissed. you don't have to pay that 30 dollars years ago..I apologize for this to you".
he..stood up, left his big desk (huge court room) - called all the police officers with cases to him and SCREAMED at them:
holding up the pile of "cases"...
"DON'T YOU EVER bring these things to my court again...you are WASTING my time"!
the NEXT tuesday - New York Daily news blazons on its front page:
"CRIME DOWN"
this was around Labor Day.
I learned from my fellow prisoners, the majority blacks, some hispanics , a few white foreigners (sounded like polish father and teenage son)..
that - as the blacks whispered to me as were curled up trying to be rested:
"man...they do this to us all the time..we're so used to it...what they do is they come to our neighborhoods, and as kids , while we're just playing, they'd cite us and give us records..and it stays with us forever..they start with us while we're kids...that's what this country does"....
i am still weeping at that revelation...and for the experience of knowing - just a very little bit - what blacks and others have gone through for generations in this country from the prejudicial , racist, callous and cruel "system" that they call "law and justice, democracy and fairness and truth".
I only begin to understand a LITTLE what black people and other colored people in this country mean when they say "brother", "sister"...
for they are brothers and sisters - despite their own differences - in SUFFERING and being oppressed...and oppression is as real as it ever was, in a country that PRETENDS to be the paragon of justice and fairness and Truth.
and i can understand in some way why most have given up on the "system". for they are the walking, living examples of how the
"very, very vicious system of exploitation OPPRESSES , dehumanises and enslaves people everywhere" -- John Perkins, former CIA "economic Hitman"
thank you for sharing your terribly unjust experience, teddy...
and we ARM these people?
Now I understand, Teddy, why sometimes you need to SHOUT.
Yes, I know how it can be and how it is, but I still cried when I read the description of what you wrote here.
I had reason to be in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area in Brooklyn quite a few years ago now to a funeral. Where I was seemed so familiar. It was the particular sound of the leaves of the Sycamore trees that suddenly raised memories. And I looked at the street sign, and I realized it was the same street where my father was born and raised in a big white house, and where we would visit once in a while when I was a very little girl.
But now I was having some arroz con pollo in a cramped apartment in The Projects, and the sounds of gunshots and people yelling, and urine in the stairwells, and drug-dealing in a dark corner of the building, and chain-link fences, and abandoned, broken-down homes, and trashed places all over ... was a whole 'nother world.
The ethnically/racially-mixed family I was visiting and with many relatives there were warm, generous, kind, and wonderful people. I watched as the beautiful little children, all dressed up, began to dance and sing together.
The funeral I was at was for a man I had taken care of until he died of AIDS. He was a parolee, and one of the most talented self-taught pianists I'd ever heard, and also a composer. I knew his history from the broken home of his birth to juvenile detention, when he was eight or so and thought he was going for a ride, and later in-and-out of prison. One time, when I was talking about an incident in my life, I said I was so filled with grief at the time. And he lowered his head and in a thick voice filled with deep sorrow, he said, "I've been grieving all my life." And, of course, now he was dying, and I felt foolish for my far lesser troubles.
When the children danced and sang in that apartment, I thought of him when he was a little boy, and saw early pictures of him with the same wonderful smile he had had, and I couldn't help ask myself, "What will happen to these children"?
So much is education and job training and economics, but even so, so much is still who you are and where do you come from?
And justice? In the group I facilitated at a "correctional" facility near where I live in upstate WNY, the breakdown was two white men and all the rest men of color with various ethnicities. I was astounded by the talent, the intelligence, the creativity, and because of the nature of the group, sometimes the compassion and supportiveness these men showed for each other, ... and the courage they had to really open up to each other. That's dangerous in a prison.
For the most part they all were in their early twenties and thirties, and always I realized what a waste of possibility was in that room. And I learned what happened when they were released, and got off the bus in the Port Authority at around 11 o'clock at night, with maybe twenty dollars in their pockets, and the clothing they had on. ... Recidivism is obviously very high.
We certainly have not lived up to our American Dream, and wiith what's been happening economically, it will get worse along racial/ethnic lines and in particular neighborhoods. And crime will rise even higher, and police will get more brutual because they will get trigger happy from fear and often from power needs and because they can get away with it. But also the same lack of education, poverty, inability to get a job, broken and dysfunctional families, drugs and alcohol, and the whole nine yards will make things worse, and WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE CHILDREN with their bright faces, their intelligence and their innocent hopefulness?
Your experience was absolutely terrible, Teddy, and so were the experiences of all that were with you. Thank God, that judge had all his buttons. Often they don't.
Thank you so much for sharing with us all.
with love, cm
Thank for sharing your stories too , Cee and others.
I brought it up, not so much to tell of MY part...but it was necessary as a prelude to the short but most essential part, which far, unmeasurably outweighs in sadness my own fearful experience...mine was nothing compared to what so many others had gone through since theyr childhood in this, "the land of the free":
which is that , in that prison, for those "23" hours (the law is clever at that - during which time you can literally feel like you have NO rights whatsoever from the moment a Police or "law enforcement" person
has you in his or her sights)
i saw and eventually when the others began to open up and talk more in the daytime..learned a bit about how blacks, hispanics, colored, the poor, etc..have and continue to suffer so much as a "group", "class", community...generation after generation...while the "american dream" is held up as a carrot that MOST are NEVER going to be ALLOWED to find..but only as a way to hold up a "measurement" by which those that "succeed" in some way (the colin powells, the barack obamas, the oprah winfreys...the sonia sotomayors..etc)
are also held up as the examples of "you can be who you want to be" so that people who buy into the system of this kind of fake "hope" can continue to be distracted and blame themselves and their communities for "failure" ....while those that PERPETRATE this system can , by using a FEW examples of the "successes" can then LECTURE everyone else on how such FAILURES THEY are for not toeing the line.
it's a very, very ruthless, clever, cruel system and society order, imo.
I come from the philippines where we have poverty and corruption also and ruthless people...but that is NOTHING compared to what America possesses...that i can tell you.
but what is most tragic is - for most people -- and they are MOST of the people - who will end up, along with the children who will bear the scars and pay for the damage that this "america" has imposed on everyone (they will pay for the debt, wars, etc. that their elders left them)...
this is an america that has a FACADE of "shining glory" but just underneath is unbelievable inhumanity, COLDNESS , and cruelty.
-- it has many good people - but the system is , imo, EVIL and proving itself to be UNWORTHY of being a model for civilization...far far less than even the most brutal other civilizations because of just some isolated or generation-wise bad leaders ...
America's is SYSTEMIC...not limited to just "one presidency" or just "one party in power" ...or just one decade of war hysteria (vietnam or 2000's)...
it is SYSTEMIC and WRITTEN all over its DNA from the very beginning -- and perhaps, to its very end.
the only proper succinct summation of it is by the most decorated Marine of them all, GEneral Smedley Butler, US Marines, 1933:
"WHAT WE DO IS EVIL".
It is no surprise that the prison industry is one of our few growth industries. Thank you very much for sharing this tragic story,
teddy.
Sorry Professor Amster, but no, there's no "silver lining"!!
Otherwise, what a splendid article-perhaps the most eloquent and apt description of our national disintegration that I've read.
I would add one item to your long list of disconnects between American myth and American reality, and that is
"home of the brave", which is our greatest delusion of all!
Allow me to add one more. "Land of the free."
"land of the free" -- another pablum consumed by a complicit public and pushed on through generations to uphold the MYTH of "noble country".
as the great legendary Tennis Player - originally from Czechoslovakia - Martina Navratilova said after the Iraq War and "homeland security" "new normal":
"I left my home country to escape the Communist dictatorship...and became an american citizen...I never imagined that the day would come when the 'Land of the free'...would become the Land of the Frightened".
a country fearful of losing its "superpower" status - and the "right" to rape every other country.
Have we not always been a cutthroat, competitive, dog-eat-dog, exploitative country? There was "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair depicting the state of affairs when the Robber Barons and monopolies were sucking the lifeblood out of working immigrants. Before that, we decimated the indians and enslaved people from another continent. We have so many illusion about what 'Americans' are or were.
chessgames56, since you mention Upton Sinclair, have you had a chance to compare his book "Oil!" with the movie that was supposedly "loosely based on" this book - "There will be blood"? I thought the movie was an exercise in narcissism for the director and the lead actor - judging by the total mangling of the plot and the point of view. I imagine that all those who praised this movie have never read the book or they don't care much for Sinclair's take on events of that period. I happened to watch Charlie Rose once where he had the director and the actor (Daniel Day Lewis), and I felt sickened that he never brought up any comparison with Sinclair's point of view.
RichM, thanks for that link. Yes, a great review, although it uses too polite a language for my liking :)
The United States has never been a beacon of hope, it's been an invader, mass-murderer and thief since 1492. It was founded and conceived on land theft and bloodshed.
That their excessive greed is now finally bringing them down doesn't mean that they were once respectable.
By the way I don't use the word America, because the name too was stolen. For openers, it's dismissive of the rest of the continent.
What gets to me is people thinking America was once a great country with a moral compass? When was that? I must have missed that part of history. From the massacres of Indians, to slavery, to Hiroshima, Vietnam, to its policies in Latin America, to its support for the creation of the terrorist state of Israel, to supporting the Shah of Iran, to supporting Saddam with intelligence and chemical weapons against the Iranian people, to these modern day Middle East massacres, America has by far the worst track record. They just have a very powerful propaganda machine to show they are the land of the free.
________________
We Are Enslaved
Debt is a big scam and permeates every aspect of our lives and keeps us all trapped.
We are awash in fear mongering to the point that we are all half-crazed.
The government is owned lock stock and barrel by corporations.
All of the politicians are a bunch of blood sucking vampires.
We are enslaved. We really, actually are. Walking and driving around and shopping blah blah is all window dressing. We are in prison. It is a big prison. "Seal the borders" for security? Hah. We are being sealed in.
We are in crazy land here, and ANYTHING we do to break out of that is worthwhile - almost nothing is happening to break out of it now - and we have absolutely nothing to lose.
People here are miserable - they are in pain and suffering.
We are intentionally being kept sick, demoralized, and fearful.
We can't see the trouble we are in, because we have nothing to compare to.
The national political discussion is a joke.
The Democratic party politicians should all be tarred and feathered and run out of town.
The Republican party politicians should all be tarred and feathered and run out of town.
America is a society gone completely mad. We live in a big prison. It is pathetic. Fear keeps us locked in. We are so saturated with fear, that it would not be off the mark to say that fear is the only thing happening here, and that anything else is ruthlessly suppressed and punished. And we are all trustees. Anyone refusing the role of trustee is isolated and viewed and treated as a pariah. That is not to say that we cannot overcome this - not in the least. We have to fight, though, every hour of every day and break the spell.
Demoralization coupled with fear - all of the thinking and speaking around us everyday is just laced with those two.
Let's smash it up. Let's never rest until we do. Nothing else is anything but a waste of time.
The Professor writing the article =- correctly and HONESTLY said as much : that even the "good two shoes" image of america "never existed".
as some of us sometimes say:
it is a MYTH of exceptionalism. make-believe "great nobility" used to Justify its CRUEL rapaciousness and Thievery. ..where its "citizens" mostly through the generations actually swallowed that Myth thinking THEY are part of 'having built our greatness" and thereby feel that they THAT important in this world.
in reality - behind or even reflected by its shiny buildings and power - it is a MONSTROSITY.
a "modernity" that - as Mahatma Gandhi would answer a question "What do you think of Western Civilization, Mister Gandhi?"
..............."....it might be a good idea"....
it doesn't even actually exist.
>>hey just have a very powerful propaganda machine to show they are the land of the free.<<
They did -- and still do. It is all about us nowadays, even our very clothing acts as free advertising for large corporations while TV and movie trailer ads promote the Army, navy, Air Force and Marines as noble endeavors.
Yet... For many people, in quiet areas of the nation, the dream seemed alive. We didn't have much crime. No riots in the streets (and certainly no demonstrations -- unless you count the Fourth of July). God seemed to be smiling on us and the country and the ugliness at its core was invisible. TV presented us with Leave it to Beaver and the Donna Reed show as examples of the perfect family. Our movies were (except for a daring few) all supportive of that American mythos.
Amazingly for some (fewer and fewer) people that myth is still true! But more and more are finding that comforting blanket of lies being pulled away from them. And they are angry at being awakened from their dreams. Striking out blindly. Thus the Tea Party. The myth of the "revolution" reborn. (Never mind that any rentors among them would not have been allowed to even vote back then.)
We are going to see more anger as the "recession" deepens as even the administration experts admit will happen, with more and more people looking for jobs. More foreclosures. More idled plants.
Ah, if that anger could be channeled into support for a progressive party; as I suggested for a name: The People Party.
Then something, maybe, could be done to finally live up to the myth.
Gary
"Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts."
-- Aristotle
And we are enslaved because we cooperate; the multitudes, in one way or another, are giving their unconscious consent. Why? Because waking up is difficult, it requires you to admit things about yourself that are generally unflattering--to shatter the self-image that you've invested so much time and energy in to build and maintain. If the truth be known, we are in love with the illusion, with the darkness, and thus asleep at the wheel.
from the article:
Empires, in short, follow the empty logic of "might makes right."
Empty logic?
"Empires, in short, follow the empty logic of "might makes right."
You know, that kind of fits the description of an elementary school yard bully. I suppose that kinda sums up what this nation has become...the world's bully. NOBODY likes bullies, do they? And what eventually but always happens to bullies? They are slapped down by someone, oftentime someone far smaller than they, who refuses to fear them. What makes us different?
IMAGINE -- MORE professors who teach "Peace Studies!"
Excellent article!
Thank you!
My sentiments exactly, Kay. I did a double take when I first saw his teaching position (on another of his articles a few days ago). I would LOVE to see more curriculums include Peace Studies!