Thursday, July 09, 2020

Charting the Collapse of the American Empire


Paul Craig Roberts, who was assistant secretary to the treasury in Ronald Reagan’s administration, has announced that collapse of the US is no longer avoidable. To substantiate this conclusion, he cites a couple of Russians whose opinions he respects: Andrei Raevsky (a.k.a. The Saker) and Dmitry Orlov (that would be me). I am flattered, of course, but I have never claimed that the collapse of the US was ever avoidable. “All empires collapse eventually; no exceptions!” I kept repeating. Ever since I first started writing on this subject in 2006, I never equivocated on this point. At that time, I wrote: “The collapse of the United States seems about as unlikely now as the collapse of the Soviet Union seemed in 1985. The experience of the first collapse may be instructive to those who wish to survive the second.” Does the collapse of the US seem a lot more likely to you now than it did in 2006? If so, that’s a good sign; if not, you should eat more fish. It is rich in omega-3 which will make your brain work better.

I don’t feel any particular urge urge to chime in with Roberts and announce that the US has just now reached the point of no return because in my opinion it passed this point a long ago. I also find it rather untoward that making this determination should hinge on the opinions of a couple of Russians; Americans should decide for themselves when their empire has collapsed far enough to call its collapse a collapse. Also, I don’t want to have a hand in collapsing America because it contradicts the informal Russian policy with regard to America’s collapse, which is neatly encapsulated in the lapidary phrase ВСЁ САМИ—“everything themselves”: Americans get to do their own collapsing while Russians refuse to lift a finger to help them. In line with this policy, I aim to inform collapse, not to perform collapse.

And in line with my goal of informing collapse, I wish to provide you with the tools to decide whether, and to what extent, American Empire has collapsed. My approach treats America as an empire, and assumes that it rests on the same three pillars as every other empire since empires first appeared many thousands of years ago. These three pillars do not include such incidentals as financial wealth, economic power, military might, technological superiority, a large population or vast territorial possessions. The three pillars are composed of essential mental constructs. Bereft of these key constructs an empire folds like a cheap suit. The American Empire once had these mental constructs in abundance. I want to equip you to decide for yourself whether it has them at all any more.

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