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The End of Empire
Wall Street’s days are numbered. Ours need not be.
In an earlier day, our rulers were kings and emperors. Now they are corporate CEOs and hedge fund managers. Wall Street is Empire’s most recent stage. Its reign will mark the end of the tragic drama of a 5,000 year Era of Empire.
The George Washington statue outside the New York Stock Exchange. (Photo by Mikael Tjemsland)
Imperial historians would have us believe that civilization, history, and human progress began with the consolidation of dominator power in the first great empires that emerged some 5,000 years ago. Much is made of their glorious accomplishments and heroic battles.
Rather less is said about the brutalization of the slaves who built the great monuments, the racism, the suppression of women, the conversion of free farmers into serfs or landless laborers, the carnage of the battles, the hopes and lives destroyed by wave after wave of invasion, the pillage and gratuitous devastation of the vanquished, and the lost creative potential.
Nor is there mention that most all the advances that make us truly human came before the Era of Empire—including the domestication of plants and animals, food storage, and the arts of dance, pottery, basket making, textile weaving, leather crafting, metallurgy, architecture, town planning, boat building, highway construction, and oral literature.
As the institutions of Empire took root, humans turned from a reverence for the generative power of life to a reverence for hierarchy and the power of the sword. The wisdom of the elder and the priestess gave way to the arbitrary rule of often ruthless kings. Social pathology became the norm and society’s creative energy focused on perfecting the instruments of war and domination. Priority in the use of available resources went to military, prisons, palaces, temples, and patronage.
Great civilizations were built and then swept away in successive waves of violence and destruction. War, trade, and debt served as weapons of the few to expropriate the means of livelihood of the many and reduce them to slavery or serfdom. Whole empires were subjected to the delusional hubris and debaucheries of psychopathic rulers.
If much of this sounds familiar, it is because in the face of the democratic challenge, the dominator cultures and institutions of Empire simply morphed into new forms.
The ideals of the American Revolution heralded the possibilities of a new era of equality and popular democratic rule, but it was a more modest beginning than we have been taught to believe. Once the former colonies gained their freedom from British rule and declared themselves the United States of America, their new leaders put aside the pronouncement of the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal and enjoy a natural right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—and set about securing their own power.
The king was gone, but the Constitution they drafted with a promise to “secure the Blessings of Liberty” for “We the People of the United States” effectively limited political participation to white male property owners and secured the return of escaped slaves to their designated owners. Colonial expansion followed soon after as the new nation expropriated by armed force all of the Native and Mexican lands between themselves and the distant Pacific Ocean.
Global expansion beyond U.S. territorial borders followed. The United States converted cooperative dictatorships into client states by giving their ruling classes a choice between aligning themselves with U.S. economic and political interests for a share in the booty or being eliminated by assassination, foreign-financed internal rebellion, or military invasion. Following World War II, when the classic forms of colonial rule became unacceptable, international debt became a favored instrument for forcing poorer nations to open to foreign corporate ownership and control.
Most of the economic, social, and environmental pathologies of our time—including sexism, racism, economic injustice, violence, and environmental destruction—originate in the institutions of Empire. The resulting exploitation has reached the limits that the social fabric and Earth’s natural systems will endure.
As powerful as Wall Street appears to be, its abuse of power has so eroded the economic, social, and environmental foundations of its own existence that its fate is sealed. We the People have a choice. We can allow Wall Street to maintain its grip until it brings down the whole of human civilization in irrevocable social and environmental collapse. Or we can take control of our future and replace the Wall Street economy with the values and institutions of a New Economy comprised of locally owned businesses devoted to serving their communities by investing in the use of local resources to produce real goods and services responsive to local needs.
Either way, Wall Street’s days are numbered. Ours need not be.
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123 Comments so far
Show AllWhere's the jpeg of a book?
Trylon
Wall Street’s days are numbered?! Don't count on it. And even if they are, so what?
Financial imperial power may shift the seat of its nominal headquarters from time to time, but the underlying power itself retains possession and control. In fact, locales and other such considerations, both concrete and symbolic, are almost completely irrelevant in today's globalized financial environment. Go tilt at some other windmills.
If their days are numbered, so what? If the stock market fails and the U.S. economy collapses, the entirety of global industrial civilization will be taken down with it. Financial imperial power may survive (or think they can) for awhile in a new location, but there are no more stand alone economies. Everything is interconnected. We are a global civilization whether we like it or not, especially in the "developed" world. After an economic crash, people in remote self-sufficient small villages may do alright, but car dependent Euro-Asian-Americans in cities will be in big trouble and are likely to suffer mightily and die in droves.
"If the stock market fails and the U.S. economy collapses, the entirety of global industrial civilization will be taken down with it."
You really thinks so? Given the current and rapidly diminishing US contribution to "global industrial civilization", I suspect that the rest of it might manage to sustain some minor remnants somewhere. In fact, I'm inclined to think that the "elite" manipulators and beneficiaries of that ongoing US depletion (economic and otherwise) are counting on it.
Yes I really think so but I hope I'm wrong and you're right although I'm not sure I want to be part of some "minor remnant" eeking out a subsistence existence. Not up to me, though. Depends on how it all plays out. Too many variables for a precise prediction.
"We are a global civilization whether we like it or not"
Global civilization does not have to equate with global fascism. The goals of the global rulers today are twisted.
You are correct - if the U.S. economy falls utterly it will have devastating consequences on the lives of millions, far beyond the borders of the U.S., but most definitely the people of the U.S. in particular.
I have one word for when that happens (not if):
GOOD
It may be GOOD from a God-like moral perspective and be richly deserved, but I hope it doesn't happen until I have lived out my life and gone to a better place. I have no faith that, when it happens, I won't be among those suffering, living like a refugee with no help on the way, or dying a miserable death. I'm just not down with that.
I hear you. But that is a very selfish sentiment. For the sake of the greater, global, human good, the death of the U.S. will be a very, very good thing. The planet will breathe a sigh of relief. The untold millions that have been under the thumb of the U.S.' military/economic hegemony and suffered under its policies will breathe a sigh of relief. Not to mention mother nature, which the US's capitalist uber-consumption raison d'etre seems to be hell-bent on wiping out as quickly as possible. I don't want to endure the horror that will become my everyday existence when the US falls either - at least compared to the comfort-filled materialistic one I've grown accustomed to over the years - but I like to think I will see the bigger picture and also breathe a sigh of relief if it comes within my lifetime. I may be wrong. But on some level, I will know it is a very, very good thing for the world.
Please re-read paragraphs 2,3,4,5. The imperial version of history (which should also include the revisionist versions of the communist regimes) is so pervasive and insidious, it's hard for most people to even imagine that we might be living, conceptually, in a huge Matrix created and maintained by vested interests that benefit from it. The survival of humanity and all that is essential for life demands breaking free of this conditioning. All conditioning, in fact. It's not easy, but the stakes are high. Do not take anything for granted as "natural" or as a result of "progress" while ignoring the destruction of nature and violence that lie beneath much of what we see around us.
cryptic remark alcyon but i think a point worth considering
the biggest problem with amerikans is that they cannot see, nor accept the reality of, the matrix in which we toil as debt serfs for royalty
i also agree with posters above that wall street is nowhere near dead, infused as they are with 24 trillion of our rapidly declining dollars
the author states that royalty has, for the most part, been done away with and this is just off base
the book who owns the world http://www.whoownstheworld.com/ is nothing more than a list of who owns what in the world and it is an eye opener
of the top 10 landowners in the world 5 are royalty
from the book:
Queen Elizabeth II, head of state of the United Kingdom and of 31 other states and territories, is the legal owner of about 6,600 million acres of land, one sixth of the earth’s non ocean surface.
She is the only person on earth who owns whole countries, and who owns countries that are not her own domestic territory. This land ownership is separate from her role as head of state and is different from other monarchies where no such claim is made – Norway, Belgium, Denmark etc.
The value of her land holding. £17,600,000,000,000 (approx).
This makes her the richest individual on earth. However, there is no way easily to value her real estate. There is no current market in the land of entire countries. At a rough estimate of $5,000 an acre, and based on the sale of Alaska to the USA by the Tsar, and of Louisiana to the USA by France, the Queen’s land holding is worth a notional $33,000,000,000,000 (Thirty three trillion dollars or about £17,600,000,000,000). Her holding is based on the laws of the countries she owns and her land title is valid in all the countries she owns. Her main holdings are Canada, the 2nd largest country on earth, with 2,467 million acres, Australia, the 7th largest country on earth with 1,900 million acres, the Papua New Guinea with114 million acres, New Zealand with 66 million acres and the UK with 60 million acres.
She is the world’s largest landowner by a significant margin. The next largest landowner is the Russian state, with an overall ownership of 4,219 million acres, and a direct ownership comparable with the Queen’s land holding of 2,447 million acres. The 3rd largest landowner is the Chinese state, which claims all of Chinese land, about 2,365 million acres. The 4th largest landowner on earth is the Federal Government of the United States, which owns about one third of the land of the USA, 760 million acres. The fifth largest landowner on earth is the King of Saudi Arabia with 553 million acres
btw: who owns the most land in amerika - answer ted turner
we are indeed rats in a maze - hey where did my cheese get to?
Expect some apologists for empire to show up, medmedude, with various rationalizations, not understanding or questioning the meaning of "legal owner". However, the maintenance and enforcement of such legal claims will necessarily bring in other characters, families and institutions, that mostly function under the radar, into play, and these are probably more violent and ruthless, because they too have huge stakes in the system.
Sorry there is no cheese, there never was any cheese, just the promise of cheese if you behaved and lived a "good" life..
It's in heaven (you know wher you live forever but don't eat) lol
got ya again!
>^^<
Not any more, medmedude, it's John C. Malone, a 'buddy' of Turner's. Malone just bought a Huge swath of my home State of Maine. ( BTW, thanks for the non-article on this CD.) His Acreage extends from New Hampshire (where he bought a sizable chunk of land, also) all the way East to New Brunswick - almost a million acres - one million!. And, as has been true forever in Maine, he pays a pittance per acre on it as it is in the 'unorganized townships'. Read "Maine, the Paper Plantation" by Ralph Nader for the True story of Maine. The "End of Empire" ??? My Ass!
hmmmm......mr hedge fund himself, thanks for the update
Veni, I can understand your concern, doubt, even disbelief that Empire could simply "End"
--- as Korten, myself, and a moderate and increasing number of others think.
But 'Ending Empire' today is mostly a matter of getting enough people to understand, acknowledge, and firmly confront the fact that Empire does exist today --- and to be motivated to confront it here, in the US, which is the prime lair in which this beast hides.
The biggest problem, Veni, if you will believe me, is that MOST Americans (even the majority of the most informed and progressive here at CD) simply do not take seriously the proof the global Empire DOES exist, and that it exists in disguised and guileful form predominantly centered right here in River City.
For example; just a few days ago, here on CD, I had a major debate with some other CD posters who basically said, "No big deal, everyone knows that Empire exists in the US and just saying the word 'Empire' again and again, claiming to expose it, and recommending that the people rise up and confront it is so passe -- everyone knows that".
To which I thought; "Well, if everyone knows that and knows it needs to be addressed and excised, then why does even the supposedly well informed and progressive base here at CD keep wasting time, diverting efforts, dividing solidarity, and being fooled by this supposedly 'well known' Empire and just keep writing reams of complaints about every 'symptom problem' in the world --- from wars, to torture, to economic oppression, to the slaughter of friggin whales, when everyone supposedly KNOWS that Empire is the proximate cause, the hidden causal cancer that is behind all our 'symptom problems'?
And the answer is that even here at CD not everyone acknowledges ---- let alone is focused --- on the seminal issue of the disguised global Empire hiding in the burning kitchen of our own dying democracy.
As a bit of a test / poll to myself, I wrote a comment on the NYT article asking readers to comment on Obama's speech Monday (relative to Bush's imperialist BS talk about Iraq war), in which he propagandized about the launching of military intervention in Libya, because I wanted to see how many supposedly (or at least partially) informed NYT activist readers might say that they thought Obama was just shilling for Empire and helping fool the population to keep them complicit and accepting of this obvious imperialist military move in the greater Middle East, Arab oil countries, and N. Africa.
Here's what I wrote:
"Obama's emotional appeal to democracy (really faux-democracy, like that in the US) is a prefect and unique siren's song for global Empire to make to the "Gap" countries in the 'Crescent of Unrest' or 'Arab Spring' countries, since only the US has mastered the modern sophisticated techniques and media mechanisms to allow disguised Empire to pose as democracy and control vast portions of the globe behind a happy-talk 'witch-doctor' propaganda of a benevolent facade of 'globalism' and Friedmanesque 'flat earth' visions of numbskull nirvana, while actually insulating and protecting the ruling-elite's looting Empire.
As the James Bond song goes, "Nobody does it better" --- making Empire look like democracy --- and that is the unique skill and competence of the US centered global Empire; keeping the working/middle-classes down on the farm (even) after they've seen Paree (only on their TVees).
The US Empire's unique global competence is keeping a vast population complacent --- even with a GINI Coefficient of Income and Wealth Inequality that the CIA warns is way over the level where civil unrest should be breaking out!
Bush couldn't do it. Egypt can't do it. China can't do it. Even Europe can't do it!"
Then I checked the Times comments to see how many informed citizens happened to mention anything about Empire --- not just whether Obama was selling BS as a shill for Empire.
None of the hundreds of replies even mentioned Empire!
So, you tell me, Veni, are all Americans sufficiently informed about the cause of our problem and aware of Empire??
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
Liberty over violent empire -- People's Party 2012
The dollars aren't real; they are digits in machinery dependent upon oil, and oil has peaked. See: http://www.oilempire.us/
Korten is right, though some people who supposedly don't want empire won't be happy with that fact.
OK.
Sorry to nitpick, but it's been going on for awhile.
"Equal share's -", "Muslim country's", and "Wake up folk's" and "seventies mantra's" are all incorrect.
You meant to write the plural: "shares, countries, folks and mantras."
"Control's" is also incorrect, although here it's a verb. It's simply "controls."
It's a sad reality that such basic errors obscure your point in writing. Had you spoken the above, no one could tell the difference.
In any event, the author's point that humanity was headed in the right direction prior to what is commonly called civilization is well taken.
People always snort at this point and say, What, do you want us all to go back to hunting and gathering and living in caves?
To which I reply, "No, it isn't what I want. But it's what the planet wants, and we'll do as she says voluntarily--or after a mass die-off as we wallow in our own waste."
Let me be the one to nitpick, this time, thepuffin :)
I agree with your last line, if you mean by that a way of life that respects nature's limits, which include not just finite resources, but finite rates of renewal of forestry, freshwater, finite rates of decomposition - such as for making compost, etc.
However, I have to disagree with your comment about "going back to hunting and gathering and living in caves", as if it follows automatically when we move to a sustainable way of life. Not at all, and it's too bad that so many people have this misconception that living with nature means hunting, gathering and living in caves.
Nature is an interplay between plants, animals and the environment that contains all. Even animals modify their surroundings to varying degrees - such as migrating herds making a track, beavers building dams, etc. Animals and insects too store food for the changing seasons when food is hard to come by, and birds and insects build "homes" to safeguard their offspring or to store food, etc.
David Korten mentions a list of advances "that make us truly human" and which came before the Era of Empire - such as "the domestication of plants and animals, food storage, and the arts of dance, pottery, basket making, textile weaving, leather crafting, metallurgy, architecture, town planning, boat building, highway construction, and oral literature". There is no need to give up these and other technologies if they can make our everyday life that much easier and that much more predictable, if the overall ecological footprint of a community is within sustainable limits. I should also add, "within equitable limits", so that one community's lifestyle does not make the life of other communities intolerable and miserable.
There are ways to quantify the impact of our lifestyle and technologies, and an intelligent society should consciously move towards a system with the least amount of impact, the smallest ecological footprint possible and choose technologies that do not leave non-biodegradable and toxic waste in their wakes.
Ah, the dangers of heavy-handed metaphor.
There are a couple of subtleties I failed to address.
The first would be, you are of course correct. We might avoid having the planet force equilibrium on us if we behave in a manner that avoids it. This necessarily presumes that ecological collapse is avoidable, which I submit is debatable enough you can't conclude with any certainty that time remains to apply the brakes---
But damn, I hope you're right.
Next, there is ample evidence that once agriculture developed--and hence surplus and storage--the need to defend stored food necessitated division of labor, armies to defend the food, accumulation of wealth, and tremendous focus on intra-species warfare. This began to occur not just in times of want--that is, hungry people storming the granary--but in times of plenty, when the taking was mere plunder.
This is well-stated elsewhere...particularly the novel Ishmael and its sequel, the difference between "taker" and "leaver" civilizations. The recent anthropolgic theory that Neanderthals had a very sophisticated civilization thousands of years before us is an example...the conclusion was that most of their structures and tools and clothing were degradable, thus, all we found were bones and stone tools...until recently.
As I say, I hope you are correct. But I think that one way or the other, the human species appears about to pass through a crucible the likes of which it has never seen--and one of its own creation.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment.
thepuffin, it's completely ok to use metaphors, except that I'm worried about the implications contained within "hunting and gathering", and hence my comment. For one thing, most people are not prepared for that kind of a life, whereas it's relatively somewhat easier to take up farming. Secondly, on a practical note, I would like to see an orderly transition of society to sustainable levels. This "transition" should also include a decrease in human population, but without coercion, wars, famines, diseases, etc. As things stand, there is simply not enough animals in the wild to support a hunting lifestyle of a large number of humans - so that has to be ruled out for now. I also feel convinced that early humans, like some other animals, were only "opportunistic meat eaters", but otherwise essentially herbivores, as per our anatomy and physiology. So, technically, "gathering" is more "natural", but again, in practice, why settle for a life of extreme uncertainty and insecurity when an alternative of relative comfort and security is possible through farming and other activities?
I know there is this anthropological argument about agriculture and the resultant food surplus giving rise to warfare and plunder. But I think this is a separate issue of the human psyche, which obviously underlies everything we do. If agriculture enables humans to fight, so will claims to hunting territory. The means of warfare may be limited in a hunter-gatherer society - but only until they develop superior weapons. As things stand, humans have developed the ultimate weapons and, in all likelihood, there are psychopaths dreaming of controlling and lording over the whole world with their weapons.
I have no easy answer as to how to change the minds of these psychopaths - but I have to remain hopeful and open to the possibility of major shifts in human consciousness, which may be happening as we speak. So it may still be possible to lead a life with a small ecological footprint and based on organic farming. Maybe we need to understand more about what it means to be happy and the hindrances to happiness. Happiness, intelligence, sustainability - these are all connected, IMO.
Can't go hunting -
the king owns all of the forests for his private hunting preserve.
Can't farm -
the king owns all of the farmlands, and besides, they are all polluted with Monsanto seeds and nuclear fallout.
Yes, bystander, that's a problem that needs to be addressed. For now, the only option for most people seems to be to buy "food" from the supermarket owned by the king, but it is not a very satisfactory experience.
We have other options. We need to overthrow our government which has been taken over by the extremely wealthy evil greedy bastards. These W.E.G.B. are now insisting that we need austerity so that they can continue to live in plenty while the rest of us grovel in the debris of their parties. These W.E.G.B.s now want us to build more nuclear power plants and thereby spread cancer and birth defects far into the future. The W.E.G.B.s can not, or will not, look into the long range effects of their power. They suffer extreme hubris and will do whatever they want to gather more wealth and killing the planet is never a concern.
It is a sad fact that many people who are not wealthy, evil, greedy bastards are going along with the current 'civilization' in hopes that they may be allowed to exist under the present system.
We must change the present system. It will not be easy. Those wealthy, evil greedy bastards will fight to continue in control of us and the whole world. The people of the United States must follow the example of the people in Tunisia and Egpt and throw the bastards out. In France they used the guillitine, hopefully we can do it with fair taxation.
'Alcyon' - 'thepuffin'. Very good exchange, good info & reflections, tnx.
On the issue of "ample evidence that once agriculture developed ... the need to defend stored food necessitated ... armies ... and tremendous focus on intra-species warfare." - let me direct your attention to the recently excavated, 4600 years old (fm. around 2600 BCE) civilization of Caral, Peru - the oldest urban center in the "new world":
"No trace of warfare has been found at Caral; no battlements, no weapons, no mutilated bodies. Shady's findings suggest it was a gentle society, built on commerce and pleasure. In one of the pyramids, they uncovered 32 flutes made of condor and pelican bones and 37 cornets of deer and llama bones. One find revealed the remains of a baby, wrapped and buried with a necklace made of stone beads. They also found evidence of drug use and possibly aphrodisiacs."
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caral
This commerce-based civilization existed for nearly 1000 years, with NO SIGN OF WAR.
This indicates that the notion that "there's always been war" is in fact nonsense.
I find that very hopeful. We may regain our peaceful state of truly civilized life.
And as I think we all feel deep in ourselves: it's the warring that is the aberration.
Thanks for that info, Smarter. I would imagine there were also other societies that didn't fight so much, although, unfortunately, they must have lost out to more aggressive conquerors and colonizers unless they happened to live in some remote areas or islands. That is also a problem I don't have an easy answer for: how does a sustainable community protect itself from outside aggression? Maybe some sort of collective defense arrangements with similar communities or nations will have to be made. But even then, what do you do against an aggressor with nuclear weapons? Real security for all will come only when a majority of people in every country decide to adopt fairness in their everyday life, achieve true democracy and decide to live within their ecological means, consuming only their fair share of resources. Otherwise, even ordinary people in a rich country with an aggressive government and a military are complicit in some form in whatever their military and corporations do elsewhere.
Alcyon, you seem like a thinking soul. Do you really think we were once what we need to become now? Or is it that we were never what we need to become now. This is a crucial point to decide upon. Do we become new or do we become old?
Hi Leea, I wish I knew the answer. However, it is not so crucial to me, even though I am convinced of the need for radical transformation at a fundamental level. Here's why: As an ordinary human being, I take some comfort from the knowledge that there have been other human beings who have lived a different kind of life, and their teachings seem to make sense to me. So, what's possible for some human beings should be possible for another, in essence. I am also thankful that these people have explained things in ways that would make sense to us, even though some of them have cautioned against getting too attached to the words or the teachings. They can take you only so far, or only point the way. Anyway, as I was searching for something I had read regarding the question of "what is possible" (I assumed your question was related), I stumbled on to this (not the one I was looking for, but interesting still):
"The Unanswerable Question" - by Dr Richard Bolstad and Margot Hamblett
www.transformations.net.nz/trancescript/the-unanswerable-question.html
Eckhart Tolle talks about the "flowering of human consciousness" and I think he says something like what was once available to a few human beings is now available to more and more (I know I'm paraphrasing, but hopefully haven't mangled the meaning :) I hope I understood your question correctly, even though I couldn't answer it.
Well I find it very telling that you answer with no answer. And this is the answer.
Wonderful.
Wow ....
Yours is the perfect reply of a Progressive, Leea. You say something but it means nothing.
Her logic existed a thousand years ago, in a Buddhist koan; Hegel thought it good enough for his Dialectic; you both flatter her, and display your ignorance.
Thank you political_naif. If you read Alcyon's reply to my question about becoming and the link supplied in response, you can see how my reply followed after reading some very wise understandings from the past. Amazing how everything is there for us if we just reach out and trust in ourselves and each other. When we do not trust and we attack, when we are not open to the world and each other, then we are fodder for empire and we feed on each other in a deadly dance of ignorance to what we have become. Let us feed each other instead, let us become nurturers empowered in nurturance. Giving to each other and so recieving what we so earnestly desire an amazing new time for humans begins here, we no longer need empire.
As your monilker suggests, your comments are naive and ingenuous.
Leea,
If you unify the contrived opposition, being is becoming. Past, present and future are illusions that emerge when using calendars and clocks to create equi-durational units of time. We exist now!
What about the concept of "awagawan"; treading the endless wheel of "coming-and-going" contained within the larger concept of the four yugas, or ages; golden,silver,copper,iron; then a period of darkness and "rest", of the same length of time; then repeating the ages again? We will become what we once were; and lose it again; buried under the rust of another "iron age". Again & again & again...NOT until we leave the "wheel" of 84 lakhs catagories of lifeforms, and return to the center, the hole, of that wheel-of-creation; that "nothingness/neither-this-nor-that", where the CREATOR resides, will we remember what we have ALWAYS been, before entering this dream of creation. So I have read. Is it true? One must perform the experiment, to see. Got anything else better to do? That is the question.
Well this sounds very good. I have never heard of this concept specifically "awagawan," is it hindu in origin? Sounds similiar to the hopi indian prophecies. As I understand it, we can change as a choice and that is what is the essence of all energy, choice in change. When we get stuck in a time, calcified, then we become too much of what we are, we start to believe that what we are is the only thing. Then some us say I am not what I am, what I see around me is not me, in attempt to become. But we are what we are, what we see. So we must find out what this means, the dark journey of the soul, the way out of what we are is through what we are, not around it. Skirting it is the deadly dance of denial. We forget that all things start as nothing and return to nothing and then recreate as somthing new or different, even as they are made of the same thing as all in the past. Same and yet different. So the pattern repeats into eternity. Empire is both our salvation and our termination.
Quit complaining. "That old demon America" has quite willing accepted its role as the imperial seat of power, questionable as it may be in reality.
There's no question that it does provide most of the military muscle and cannon fodder as well as the primary locale for political theatrics. Actual decision making authorities, on the other hand, are open to some considerable question.
Obama says those guy's on Wall Street are "Savvy Businessmen."
Obama went golfing with Robert Wolf, CEO of UBS bank, just days after UBS admitted to illegally assisting wealthy Americans dodge tax obligations.
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/8/27/as_obama_golfs_with_ubs_exec
Here is a foreign (Swiss) organization actively trying to cripple America's treasury in a time of war - that would make them the enemy. But in Obama wolrd, it makes them the presidents golf partner.
Excellent article! The Long Emergency has arrived and it is time to take care on the local level.
I would add the art of painting and drawing to the pre-imperialist achievements.
Hell's a poppin' and reason is bent and there are no exit signs. Havin' fun yet?
This article pretty much summarizes why America is where its at today; centuries of really BAD karma are catching up to all of us. Will the reign of these "rulers" end soon? Only if enough people can see through the "hologram" to catch a glimpse of what life could be like without our "masters' yoke" around our necks. Then of course, there has to be a massive rebellion with thousands and thousands of people putting themselves at risk of losing everything they have fought tooth and nail for in this corrupt system. Nope, I don't think its gonna happen, folks!
Amerika is an empire in denial. And on drugs too, really, really powerful drugs.
I might agree with much that is said here, within the piece and the comments, IF the finger pointed elsewhere. The weapons of WAR is our Master. Wall St. is a shell game. Guns and swords are final in effect.
What made us human? What key difference stands between us and other creatures that exist on this planet? We differentiate in the extreme, Ego driven to believe we, I, are seperate from it, you, they. This seperation from nature and the other is the power source of what David Korten labels 'Empire'. David recognizes something is wrong, but controlled by his ego, he can only see what is wrong as seperate from himself. When any one of us can see that they are Empire because they are human, then the end of Empire will begin, and the beginning of a new era will finally be ushered in. Why, when we see that we are empire, will empire end? Because that is what Empire is, when we see evil beyond us, we have tricked ourselves into believing that somehow we are seperate from the rest of the world, the rest of the universe. This is because we want to be good if we believe there is bad. Why? Because of old beliefs that whatever power exists will punish bad, and reward good. This another model of us seperate from something. Be it Mother, or Father or God or Leader. The most we can be is out of balance, and even this is not much because nature will balance in the end what we cannot. It all breaks down to energy and laws of nature, of our planet, of our universe. You are either in sync with these laws and functioning with them in mind, or you are out of sync because you imagine, you pretend you are seperate. Empire has easily become the new devil even as people like David rarely speak of God except through words like community. The new heaven. The sign that you are as much of what is out of balance as what you see is out of balance is that you see the imbalance. You see it but you imagine it is beyond you, seperate from you. Old human pattern of belief. Double, double trick on trick on trick. It's so easy and yet the hardest thing to do, to simply admit you are not seperate in the way you believe, that all is connected in the great web of life, and what you see is what you are. What you believe is what you create. It is time to move beyond ego boundaries, and seperations, and be not just human, that which creates the illusion of empire, but to strip the big E from Empire and put it at the end of human lower case, to make a new human'e' world. Seeing empire in self allows for the change, the metamorphis, because though we cannot chage what is seperate from us, we can change anything if it is part of us. We are by our human socialization empire, But we can become through changed socialization, humane.
I have no doubt that I will be challenged by what I have written above, but any challenge by my fellow human, is nothing to what I go through, what I have been through by challenging my human being, challenge empire within and feel the wrath, the fear, the unbinding, the loss, the burn, of becoming humane instead. And nothing can change the new feelings that I am birthing into myself, as I watch empire crumble with my acceptance of what I am while others around me still build it up with their denial.
As a footnote I must ad that the myth that creativity was found and then lost is just plain wrong. Energy cannot be created nor destroyed, it just changes form. Our creative energy was simply either redirected to our human endeavors or it was supressed by choice through our growing pangs to become human. That creative energy can be redirected with understanding and awareness now, today. If you first understand that your imaginings of loss and seperation are the doing of your own mind and the habit of early humanity.
Bravo, Leea! Great post. As I was reading through the first part of your post, it occurred to me that there would be some who might object to your line of reasoning - and then I found, in your second paragraph, that you too had anticipated this. I guess you've been here long enough, eh? :)
It's convenient to think that the problem is only with this or that person or that institution. There is also this misunderstanding that admitting this "connection" you speak of somehow absolves the bigger criminals of their responsibility or that it equates our share in the mess with their's.
Having read J. Krishnamurti and his admonition "You are the world", I can see what you mean, and why it's important to understand our own role in supporting and enabling the empire, and how we depend on or have benefited from the empire in the past (or even in the present).
Derrick Jensen's take on empires is that cities too function as empires in that they suck the resources from the countryside in amounts that are disproportionate to the urban population. I agree that the empire is not just "out there", but also much closer.
Thank you Alcyon for the compliment. You will notice that the human tendancy is to look outside of self to understand one's own experience. The unspoken and hidden ego agreement that most of us are functioning through is so engrained that few know they are in it, that it is not beyond them. Books like you mention by Krishnamurti, and as mentioned below such as Ishmael, help us begin on this journey of ego metamorphasis so we can see with new eyes in the now. David Kortens writing represents misaligned ego perception at it's best. What doctor works against their patient to save their patient? Empire is no mere infection of humanity, it is humanities social body and it is infected. When we gently see this and gently understand this, then we may introduce healthy ways to be what we are to disinfect ourselves. It's about taking responsibility for life, instead of looking for a savior or a leader to fix things for you or blaming others to fix things for you. I cannot say I have taken full responsability for my life yet, I am still working to change my ego ways, it is so achingly slow, such a shocking realization that I am controlled by the same humanity as the worst in the world, and until I can do my best, I cannot really be the judge of what I imagine is their worst. I must stay open to the fact that the picture I see may still be skewed by old ego patterns. I am awake more than anything to Empire with me, rather than Empire without me. In a way this has been ultimately a big relief, to quietly feel my own power, to do good or bad, and know I do both daily. My powers of judging others, and the curse of judging others has been muted greatly within me. I am left with the silence of doing for self, changing self. My compassion for humans, for humanity for what we are is now greater, where before I had mostly condemnation.
I am more connected where before I was mostly seperate.
Thanks for this contribution as it provides me with a differing approach to the hypothesis I've stated here--that the ultimate root of our shared troubles rests with our malformed culture and the dysfunctional societies it's cultivated. Korten is incorrect to place the start of our dysfunction at 5K years ago; 12-14K is closer to being correct. My only critique, Leea, lies in the possibility of humaneness within a Nature having rules that aren't humane at all. However, the very few examples of functional societies I've encountered confirm your hypothesis that to be functional the ego must be put into service of the whole society, not the individual.
So, are you saying that there is no land between the Ohio River and the Pacific Ocean? I suggest looking at a map. A historical map from the era that she is referring to would probably be most helpful.
You may hold much of what she says concerning "gringos" with such contempt if you want to, but to me, you are demonstrating you inability to look at the past history of the North American continent (in particular) for what it really is. Why do you believe that acknowledging the horrors and atrocities committed (and they are MANY) somehow denigrates YOU?
You write "Making mistakes ( and acknowledging them ) is part of the human condition and personal growth, as is learning to respectively contribute to a cohesive and civil society." Apparently, you believe that only your version of right and wrong makes for a "civil society" and that is just wrong! It is why we are still stuck in the same place as a society.
Perhaps MANY people see "it" differently. Do you actually intend to convey that we can only contribute to a cohesive and civil society via respectives that only reflect your point of view? Those days are OVER.
And, ya- some people would assign me to the "white" race, but I am BEIGE. We are all just varying shades of brown. Let's stop with the nonsense and try some cooperation if we intend to survive this ongoing assault by the descendents of those who have you so conditioned as to what a civil society is and how to run it.
Your words are true and I understand your points now. It is naturally difficult to express one's pov completely, and with brevity, as no one can be expected to fully reveal the inner workings of their heart and mind in a forum such as this one. There are others whose minds are all ready set "in stone" and when it is established that they will not engage in any other discussion that does not fit their model, one must just let it, and them, go. It doesn't invalidate them, but it doesn't move them forward, either.
There is no way that any of us can undo the atrocities commited in the past; we have to keep moving forward. The important part is in which direction and how we do it. RBTL may never see the type of justice which she seeks, but there can be peace and equity for ALL people, which is a type of justice in itself.
"Right, slimwit: ALL people obviously excludes non-whites? What do you care--after all, non-whites are only the MAJORITY on this planet."
That's your statement and it is the opposite of mine. The only admirable quality you choose to show is the one that lets EVERYONE know that you are here and therefore, you do matter and you won't let anyone forget/ignore/obsfucate about you. The unending, incessant vitriol works against you, though.
rudebetweenthe_rants is equally as "clever" as slimwit. Yawn.