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 naive, but the storybook
values at the
heart of America's
erstwhile image are inspiring.

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 naive, 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.

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