The American Empire: A Finale
Where is America headed?
by
Justin Raimondo
by Justin Raimondo
 Author's
Note: The following is the text of a talk given in Paris on March
21, at the "Prendre
le Moyens de la paix au XXI siecle," which I believe roughly
translates into "Prospects for Peace in the 21st Century,"
a conference sponsored by Bernardins College and the Sorbonne.
I am not cheered
by the subject of my talk here today, which is the decline and fall
of the American empire, first, because I am an American, and, second,
because the description of America as an empire fits it all too
well. When you remember that the American Revolution was fought
against an imperial power, that the U.S. was born in a struggle
against an occupying army, and that its victory against the British
was an inspiration to anti-imperialist liberals everywhere, it is
a shaming thing to have to come here to describe how it ended in
tragedy, betrayal, and a short and ugly decline.
That decline
was not written in the stars but made inevitable by the actions
of individual men (and women!), the men and women who rule us, the
elites in government and the corporate world, in the media and the
white-collar classes. Their mindset was best summed
up by an anonymous top White House official who spoke to journalist
Ron Suskind, in answer to objections against the Iraq war and the
Bush administration's policy of preemptive warfare:
 "The
aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based
community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions
emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' …
"'That's
not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're
an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And
while you're studying that reality – judiciously, as you
will – we'll act again, creating other new realities, which
you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're
history's actors… and you, all of you, will be left to just
study what we do.'"
While undoubtedly
pandemic in Washington, this kind of thinking characterized not
only the Bush administration, but was and is emblematic of the ruling
elites in every Western country. The ancient Greeks had a word for
it: hubris, which might be defined as a kind of overweening
pride, one that impelled mere mortals to believe they could act
like gods. It was considered the worst kind of sin. This mental
attitude permeates modern culture, at least in the West, and while
its roots are psychological, the first evidence of the crisis is
manifest in the economy.
Read
the rest of the article
March
25, 2009
Justin
Raimondo [send him mail]
is editorial director of Antiwar.com
and is the author of An
Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard and Reclaiming
the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement.
Copyright
© 2009 Antiwar.com
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