Here's a view any progressive Tinker Bell could embrace: "the American Empire is falling!"
So sez Terry Paupp, author of Exodus From Empire. Terry argues that the Yankee empire is living literally on borrowed time, by issuing an ever-growing stream of kited checks, i.e. "worthless U.S. Treasury Bonds.. backed up by nothing more than the promise of the U.S. Government...."
You know you're riding the wild pony when you pass a line like the following:
Ever since the U.S. went off the gold standard during the Nixon presidency, the dollar is not backed by anything except the military strength of the nation...." [But thankfully] "... those days might well be ending, as the Euro takes its place as the dominant currency of the European Union, and Europe begins to follow different policy choices and paths from the architects of the American Empire.
Priceless, eh?
Okay. So the A nation's empire is "falling", and we're all about to escape the bloody claws of Pax Americana. Where's spaceship earth headed, then? According to Comarade Paup we're headed toward a "counter-hegemonic alliance" which even as you read this is "...emerging and rising with the capacity to develop national, regional, and international alliances across the Global South...." And it's ready and able to "... undermine the sway and threat of the American Empire."
Annnd there's more -- there's even "struggles within the Global North.... social movements... dedicated to eliminating" not only "the Neo-liberal model" but "the resurgent militarism that seeks to enforce it."
Damned if our boy here don't have "the vision thing" for us too:
a post-Imperial American needs to find a path toward social, political, economic and spiritual liberation for both its own people and the peoples and governments of the rest of the world. The path of a post-Imperial America is a revolutionary proposition and a revolutionary goal. Taking such a path is the only way to re-democratize America and, at the same time, supply the necessary means to achieve an interdependent human rights oriented world under the rule of law .... That is when we shall truly see DEMOCRACY RISING.Who knew? Maybe the coming world will prove to be a way way brighter world than we 've ever dreamed of before.
Comments (6)
Huh. Sounds like we're done. i'll pack up and go home.
Posted by Rowan | May 21, 2007 12:26 AM
Posted on May 21, 2007 00:26
Well, aside from the fact that the column reads like an op-ed from a college paper, I rather agree with it. If you take a look around, it's pretty obvious that things are heading for a glorious shuddering collapse in the near future -- especially if the Donkeycrats manage to win four years in Big White Massuh's House and, after four years, things are even worse. (I've always believed that the collapse of the USSR was not the "end of history", but simply the sound of the first shoe falling)
What gripes my ass is the fact that The American People™ are so goddamn' willfully ignorant, selfish and cowed that they've shirked their duty as citizens, when, in the course of human events and all that jazz etc., events call for them to bring it all down from the inside.
(see my grizzled old post about how people abroad fight imperialism vs. how people in the USA do it)
Posted by Mike Flugennock | May 21, 2007 9:19 AM
Posted on May 21, 2007 09:19
rowan i lean towards your cynical
"chortle"
though mike's vision
of a global macro crisis
is bound to happen....eventually
but in the here and now i'll settle for a
destroyed new dem party strangle hold
a few serious up notchings
of the job site struggle
a weak dollar
and
a fed health system for all
oh
and a temporary
clamp on unc's posse type
crusader
armed mayhem
handicap that list for me iron mike
Posted by op | May 21, 2007 8:14 PM
Posted on May 21, 2007 20:14
It's not that I disagree that the American empire is crumbling. It's that the Democracy Rising poster seems to believe that it's crumbling because of anti-hegemonic pressures from below which will eventually coalesce to form a magical true non-American democracy.
My cynicism is that one power will be replaced by another, or many, but the power will remain power over people by some mechanism of oppression. I've read about what happened when European states were the major powers of the world...it wasn't exactly the kind of thing I'd like to see repeated, no matter how anti-hegemonic they appear now.
And America itself? As likely to fall into something destructive as it is into a pure democracy. It's not really something to look forward to. Plan for, maybe. Cheer? Be careful what you wish for.
Posted by Rowan | May 22, 2007 1:45 AM
Posted on May 22, 2007 01:45
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Global Warming+Oil Shocks+Religious Fanaticism+Population Pressures does not equal
Pleasant European Social Democracies.
Posted by Brian | May 22, 2007 8:20 PM
Posted on May 22, 2007 20:20
hard to argue against either of u .....
rowan and brian
like heckle and jeckle
Posted by op | May 22, 2007 9:19 PM
Posted on May 22, 2007 21:19