The Fall of the Sates

THE FALL OF THE STATES

You live in remarkable times. Only once before in the history of the world has there been a totally dominant country and that was the Roman Empire. The Romans lasted for some seven hundred years. Yes, there was indeed the sub-dominant British Empire, which flourished from about 1650  to 1950 and performed the amazing feat of resisting the whole of fascist/nazi/communist Europe from a small island of only 46 million poorly-armed people.

 Our current boss, the USA, is also unique in its grand position in being still a genuine democracy. Imperfect, but a democracy. Would you have preferred the USSR to have been world boss?

Historians of a philosophical turn of mind suggest that all empires fall in time. How long will the USA last? Why, do you think, it will fall? Not for lack of money nor of food. Water? No, Canada has lots to spare. Confidence? Well, there's a point. Belief in one's  own worth, in one's values, in one's image of oneself seems to go down the drain just before an empire collapses.

In ancient Greece, for instance, they were proud of their arete, a word not easy to translate. But, roughly, the Greeks grew up hoping to be strong, skilled, personally brave, full of pride in their community, and in pursuit of excellence in everything they did, including their magnanimity. What an old-fashioned idea that seems nowadays.

When the Romans defeated the Greeks and took over the Greek Empire they were even willing to learn from the defeated.  Their personal values became very similar, though, perhaps with a different order of emphasis. In his wide-ranging survey, From Plato to Nato,  David Gress  tells us that the early Roman Republic valued "courage, moderation, strict honesty, rigid devotion to duty, justice and patriotism."

The British Empire, too, even if it was slightly confused by the more passive values of Christianity, did its best in its schools, even in those of Barbados, to promote those ancient ideals of noble behaviour. Only after the end of WWII and the prompt victory of the British Labour Party, were they replaced by craven modern idealism, in which heroism is replaced by sensitivity, conviction in thinking by universal doubt, and normal patriotism suddenly became an old-fashioned vice. 

After Hiroshima and Nagasaki similar uncertainties spread to the USA, and after rejoicing in the fall of the British Empire the USA took pleasure in humiliating what was left at the time of the Suez Crisis. Their own unexpected humiliation came in the Viet Nam War, and lasted until the simple patriotism of that failed actor and great President retrieved much of their dignity, when his vast expenditures on armaments forced the USSR into economic disaster.

The American intellectuals remained unimpressed. No one culture is better than any other. Truth no longer exists. Even virtue is sadly rare.The victim is almost as guilty as her attacker. Reform of the criminal, however fleeting and improbable, has replaced his gentle punishment. Even though a family has, with great difficulty, emigrated into the USA there is no need to learn the local language, and their children can be educated, free, in the language and customs their parents have bravely abandoned. The Romans used to say and believe that Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. but modern Americans, even those who are nominally fighting men and women, believe that death is a fate worse than death, and that to avoid any American being brought home in a body bag is the most important consideration in any crisis.

How long can the American Empire withstand such internal passivity and lack of resolution? The money shows no sign of drying up, but rather the reverse. Taxes are raising unexpected thousands of millions for the Government to experiment with. They might even think about relieving poverty, though I fear that such a splendid idea is beyond the bounds of possibility.

Fifty years and it's dead, say some of my friends. My guess is two hundred. But perhaps, one day, they might again elect an intelligent president and then all bets are off..

The result might be that we all become External Citizens of the Global United States, using their marvellous dollar as our own and paying tribute to the sacred rituals of Democracy, Capitalism and Baseball.

Let me hear your comments: e-mail me at jackleacock@jackleacock.itgo.com

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