Why the American Empire Was Destined to Collapse

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Nomi Prins

Why the American Empire Was Destined to Collapse
Author and social critic Morris Berman says the fact that we're a nation of hustlers lies at the root of our decline.

March 7, 2012 |


Several years after the Wall Street-ignited crisis began, the nation’s top bank CEOs (who far out-accumulated their European and other international counterparts) continue to hobnob with the president at campaign dinners where each plate costs more than one out of four US households make in a year. Financial bigwigs lead their affluent lives, unaffected, unremorseful, and unindicted for wreaking havoc on the nation. Why? Because they won. They hustled better. They are living the American Dream.

This is not the American Dream that says if you work hard you can be more comfortable than your parents; but rather, if you connive well, game the rules, and rule the game, your take from others is unlimited. In this paradigm, human empathy, caring, compassion, and connection have been devalued from the get-go. This is the flaw in the entire premise of the American Dream: if we can have it all, it must by definition be at someone else’s expense.

In Why America Failed, noted historian and cultural critic Morris Berman’s brilliant, raw and unflinchingly accurate postmortem of America, he concludes that this hustling model, literally woven into the American DNA, doomed the country from the start, and led us inevitably to this dysfunctional point. It is not just the American Dream that has failed, but America itself, because the dream was a mistake in the first place. We are at our core a nation of hustlers; not recently, not sometimes, but always. Conventional wisdom has it that America was predicated on the republican desire to break free from monarchical tyranny, and that was certainly a factor in the War of Independence; but in practical terms, it came down to a drive for "more" -- for individual accumulation of wealth.

.....(snip).....

NP: What do you say to people who don’t believe America has failed; who may just see the country as going through a bad patch, so to speak? What evidence have you compiled for the argument that the United States has failed?

MB: The major evidence is, of course, economic, and there is by now a slew of books showing that this time around recovery is not really possible and that we are going to be eclipsed by China or even Europe. These are books by very respected economists, I might add; and even a US Intelligence report of two yrs ago, “Global Trends 2025,” says pretty much the same thing, although it adds cultural and political decline into the mix. The statistics here are massive, but just consider a single one: in terms of collective wealth, the top 1 percent of the nation owns more than the bottom 90 percent. If we have a future, it’s that of a banana republic. And there will be no New Deal this time around to save us; just the opposite, in fact, as we are busy shredding any social safety net we once had. .........................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/world/154453/why_the_american_empire_was_destined_to_collapse/

[TheWraith]

1. Increasingly, I find using the phrase "American Empire" a sure-fire credibility killer.

It fails to understand the word "empire," and usually presages some self-rightous and factually deficient rant trying to justify analogizing the US to ancient Rome.

[marmar]

2. When you've got military bases in as many countries as we do, you've got an empire.....

....... semantic arguments aside. And I'd suggest you read more from Morris Berman. Factually deficient, he isn't.

[bemildred]

4. The "Rome Analogy" has always been quite popular in the halls of power in this country.

No need to attribute it to the left; or "the crazies", the right and the center are quite unabashed about it.

Edit: and they always have been.

[sudopod]

8. Hyperbolic posts like these are why no one takes you seriously. nt

[Odin2005]

13. If you can't see the Rome parallels you are not paying attention.

[leveymg]

3. The real danger is when a hustler is appointed head of intelligence - GHW Bush & Co.

and then goes on to take over the government. Then the thieves have complete license to steal and murder in secret.

[Newest Reality]

5. The sooner

this sinks-in, the better.

Putting hope and fear aside, the captivating capacity of the illusion loses its luster and denial dissolves.

"They eat each other." Fits perfectly. We are becoming grist for the mill and food for the gods.

[raccoon]

6. All empires collapse eventually; I think it's a law of nature. However, powerful people in the US

have done things that certainly hasten it.


rec'd.

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. What a sadly fascinating article this is!

This bit about
"Americans are not very bright, and not even the bright ones are very bright—it’s not merely a question of IQ."
is stunning.
"A Marist poll released on July 4, 2011 showed that 42 percent of American adults are unaware that the U.S. declared its independence in 1776, and this figure increases to 69 percent for the under-30 age group.

Twenty-five percent of Americans don’t know from which country the United States seceded.

A poll taken in the Oklahoma public school system turned up the fact that 77 percent of the students didn’t know who George Washington was, and the Texas Board of Education recently voted to include a unit on Estee Lauder in the history curriculum, when they don’t have one on the first president.

Nearly 30 percent of the American population thinks the sun revolves around the earth or is unsure of which revolves around which. Etc. etc.

How can such a population grasp a structural analysis of American history or politics? They simply aren’t capable of it."

[Gore1FL]

10. "to 69 percent for the under-30 age group. "

What happened 30 years ago?

It's when we decided to quit doing things and to do everything on the cheap.

Thanks Reagan!

[bemildred]

11. Which leads to a rather shallow form of "patriotism".

And boy is that what we have. Randian sociopaths as our highest cultural expression.

[pansypoo53219]

9. we are following the path of others. mainly spanish empire. READ american theocracy

by kevin philis part 1 + 3.

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. Kevin Phillips DOES lay it all out, doesn't he?