Empire or Humanity?

[Orwellian_Ghost]

The motive of the U.S. establishment, understood by the aerial gunner I knew, was of a different nature. It was described early in 1941 by Henry Luce, multi-millionaire owner of Time, Life, and Fortune magazines, as the coming of "The American Century." The time had arrived, he said, for the United States "to exert upon the world the full impact of our influence, for such purposes as we see fit, and by such means as we see fit."

We can hardly ask for a more candid, blunter declaration of imperial design. It has been echoed in recent years by the intellectual handmaidens of the Bush administration, but with assurances that the motive of this "influence" is benign, that the "purposes" -- whether in Luce's formulation or more recent ones -- are noble, that this is an "imperialism lite." As George Bush said in his second inaugural address: "Spreading liberty around the world… is the calling of our time." The New York Times called that speech "striking for its idealism."

The American Empire has always been a bipartisan project -- Democrats and Republicans have taken turns extending it, extolling it, justifying it. President Woodrow Wilson told graduates of the Naval Academy in 1914 (the year he bombarded Mexico) that the U.S. used "her navy and her army... as the instruments of civilization, not as the instruments of aggression." And Bill Clinton, in 1992, told West Point graduates: "The values you learned here… will be able to spread throughout the country and throughout the world."

For the people of the United States, and indeed for people all over the world, those claims sooner or later are revealed to be false. The rhetoric, often persuasive on first hearing, soon becomes overwhelmed by horrors that can no longer be concealed: the bloody corpses of Iraq, the torn limbs of American GIs, the millions of families driven from their homes -- in the Middle East and in the Mississippi Delta.

Have not the justifications for empire, embedded in our culture, assaulting our good sense -- that war is necessary for security, that expansion is fundamental to civilization -- begun to lose their hold on our minds? Have we reached a point in history where we are ready to embrace a new way of living in the world, expanding not our military power, but our humanity?

...

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174913

[maryf]

1. "Have we reached a point in history

where we are ready to embrace a new way of living in the world, expanding not our military power, but our humanity?"

How many here can at least start to imagine this?

K&R

[bvar22]

2. K&R

Joining with those ready to expand humanity.

A Department of Peace would be a step in the right direction.

[maryf]

3. Kick for the night...nt

[scarletwoman]

4. What an amazing society we could build if we eschewed militarism!

Humanity first -- what a concept!

[eridani]

6. It's a lot like trying to turn a battleship around with an outboard motor

Is it possible to get millions of outboard motors pointing in the same direction?

[bertman]

5. For an eye-opener, read Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States."

This imperial quest is, to me, the natural progression of thousands of years of human conquest of other humans. The tide of empire has ebbed and flowed on almost all continents and in all of the world's major cultures.

Like it or not, it seems to be a genetic predisposition for those humans who are the ruling elites to manipulate the masses to help them to gain power over their rivals.

Right now, we Americans have climbed to the pinnacle of military power. Whether we will be brought low by our own overarching military goals, or the machinations of those who wield the power of international finance, or a soon-to-rise superpower with assets that rival our own, is debatable. What is not debatable is that in the 20th and 21st centuries we have become a modern Rome. Have the architects of our rise to world dominance erred in their planning? Or are we just another stepping stone on the pathway that leads to the subjugation of the entire planet under a few powerful groups of leaders?

Whatever the ultimate outcome, I hope that history will record that in the early 21st century, Americans rose up and took back their democratic institutions and re-ignited the fierce fires of government, of, by and for the people.

Recommend. Excellent post.

[Selatius]

7. Change is going to come regardless if we want it or not. There is no other option left.

The US simply cannot sustain forever hegemonic control over the world. It has over 700 military outposts scattered across the world. This is expensive to maintain. Maintaining large garrisons in places like Afghanistan or Iraq is draining on the national treasury.

Whenever an empire becomes overextended militarily, it becomes vulnerable to attack from its opponents. Faced with multiple threats on different fronts, the costs of maintaining captured territory will swell. You cannot cover all positions all the time. The enemy only has to hit one to do damage.

Whenever it becomes too consolidated economically into the hands of a smaller and smaller number of people, its economy becomes stagnant. Eventually, the economy becomes stunted, and it is further burdened by excessive military expenditures to prop up corporate interests abroad.

Corporations are the tools we use to extend into a victim country and exploit its population for labor and its resources for our own ends. Gone are the days when armies are allowed to overrun and conquer entire continents like the bad old days of imperialism. Corporations do that now as much if not more than armies.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

8. It is where many of us go,

visualizing an other outcome of the experiment called Democracy. There are still a number of us within this land that exalt humanity and caring. When we band together, we will reverse the shite that has been thrust upon us from the corporates and elites.

[DaveinJapan]

9. Very intersting stuff, thank you! k&r nt