I had been asked to give a keynote speech at a conference at Columbia University’s Journalism School. It was January 2002. Two planes had been flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center months earlier and you could still feel how wounded the city felt. You could read it in the faces of New Yorkers you spoke to.
But it was the words of one of his classmates that come back to me now. He had arrived in New York just a few days before 9/11 from his native Pakistan to study at Columbia. He likened the United States to Imperial Rome.
"If you are lucky enough to live within the walls of the Imperial Citadel, which is to say here in the US, you experience American power as something benign. It protects you and your property. It bestows freedom by upholding the rule of law. It is accountable to the people through democratic institutions.
“But if, like me, you live on the Barbarian fringes of Empire, you experience American power as something quite different. It can do anything to you, with impunity… And you can’t stop it or hold it to account.”
Well, we’ve managed to undo WWII and Civil Rights.
The Project 2025 plan is to undo Women’s suffrage, WWI and the Civil War. too.
Yes, yes we are headed towards another global war, citizens are being gunned down in the streets, but what about the billionaires?
They will make a ton of money and use the chaos to target their critics
They will get theirs
As we return to violence, hate and force all humanity faces a challenge. FTFY.
The world knows what the American empire and Western civilization are. Maybe Americans and Westerners don’t and that’s why things are seemingly so shocking. And it’s a very exciting time for any nation outside of the West, a dangerous time but one for perhaps positive changes and self determination. And yes, Trump’s just the popular face used by capital to swindle MAGA and oppress the rest (MAGA follows regardless, just tell them it’s the fault of some brown dude or gay dude or whatever, lol, they’re known and mocked idiots in America which really puts it into perspective), and what we’re seeing is the decline of an empire and the rats taking a bite of the cheese before they escape this sinking ship.
Positive changes and self determination? I feel like increasingly more “might makes right” world with more countries feeling free to bully their neighbors is going to cause the opposite. At least there was some, however tiny, effort in pretending that wasn’t how it worked.
There was no effort, tell that to the victims of the American empire, of Israel, who quite literally raped women while wearing their underwear, what there was in the West was spin. Nobody has ever been more might makes right than them, Pax Americana was just subjugation, but conflict, especially in such a chaotic times, is inevitable. But I bet that, the moment Israel stops being supported by America and has to deal with their neighbours cordially and normalize, peace will come to the Middle East (barring another American/Western incursion), even the UAE and Saudi Arabia would have to play along, because it’s hard to sell war to people who aren’t amoral and bloodthirsty, really.
So you prefer the alternative multipolar order in which the USA, China, Russia and (maybe) India project their will in their regional influence zones by strength. That is certainly a point of view.
Certainly, because not every country will have bloodthirsty citizens and imperialistic aspirations, right? Not every country is Japan or France… and just because a country can defend itself a bit better doesn’t mean they’ll go full Nam or Falujah, right? People can cooperate, and for more than just military excursions. All these countries just have enough firepower to hold the West at bay, we’ll see if this develops into many mini Americas or not. I believe it won’t, and I believe that America and parts of the West will become so miserable we’ll see a white man exodus in the next 30 years, which will make the rest of the world see the West differently and normalize relationships in about 100 years, maybe? Maybe I’m being too optimistic.
Not every country could be Japan or France because there was a stronger country enforcing current political borders.
In no way does this justify capturing Maduro, but Maduro was talking about invading Guyana last year. We’re already seeing various Middle Eastern countries build spheres of influence in the various civil wars in Africa, hoping to fill the void of a shrinking west.
At best, the world will have a peace similar to the one in Europe post-Napoleon where every major power gets their empire to do with as they please.
Maduro was just replaced like Bashar al-Assad was, because the American empire is tightening things in its region, and it was coordinated and accepted by other groups. But we shall see, right? I think war will continue to take place in Europe and America, well, America will get the Palestinian/global South experience. But the rest of the world at large, especially the further you are from the grasp of America, might just make deals and cooperation agreements. Not every country has an MIC that buys politicians and pushes them to do war, as well.
And you just talked past the crux of my argument where a shrinking American presence can lead to war without addressing it.
Maduro said that he would invade another country. He probably would have done it if it wasn’t for a rapid American diplomatic response, the one before his kidnapping.
Borders will be in flux and those borders in flux will lead to war and death.
It’s an interesting twist to American/Western exceptionalism to think either are especially evil and imperialistic, instead of them just having been the strong ones/those in position to do those things. It’s not like there have ever been empires outside of US/West…
I am not sure if you are being ironic. Are you claiming Russia and China don’t have imperialistic aspirations?
China almost none (reintegrating the colonized territories is not imperialism, but anti imperialism), and Russia, maybe but they’re defanged, and certainly not to the extent of the West? That has never been part of their civilization’s psyche. I mean, FFS, the only real ideological development worth anything that came from this side of the world comes from the Russians side of Europe in the form of Marxism/Leninism. I trust them more with right and wrong and power than I do France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands (Dutch East India Company), Belgium (King Leopold)… I don’t think any group of people have been as bloodthirsty, violent and amoral as these ones. You might disagree and I understand why, but any non propagandised mind outside of the Western sphere of influence knows what I’m talking about. Also, China is literally making deals and not dropping bombs around the world which, regardless of spin, is a much better alternative, lol, and the big imperialist beast in their region is and has historically been Japan, come on.
“it’s never been in their psyche” why is Russia as large as it is today?
@yappymonotheist I find your take immoral, racist with a tad of fascistic nationalistic influences, and definitely disinformed. I really hope it’s just ragebait.
Marx was German.
Why do you think Russia “maybe” had “imperialistic aspirations?” There was a dump recently of Putin’s conversations with Bush-Cheney that answered the question, but, as Parenti put it, manufacturing reality happened.
Well put. Judge nations by their actions.
There was no effort
Dunno how you understood what I wrote but bringing freedom, liberty, civilization, whatever, that was the tiny effort to pretend it wasn’t just about subjugation and resources.
What liberty was brought? Liberty by enforcing your systems and puppets? Freedom from their resources and lives? Civilization? What’s in Western civ besides violence, man? That’s what was brought. No, the tiny effort was the SPIN, the narratives, that repeated enough times can sound true, I guess? And yes, even the spin is gone, which is dangerous for Americans more than the rest of the world, because it means the people in power 1)are not focusing externally as much (but they’re still vampires, ofc) 2)think they’re past needing to pretend to have values.
You might’ve missed the word “pretending” in both of my replies
As close to honest I’ve ever seen from a Western venue.
The 1973 coup in Chile against left-wing Prime Minister Salvador Allende “wasn’t orchestrated by the CIA but the United States said it would accept a coup”, he added.
Lol. Yes it was.
