What If The Empire Ended?

 

What If The Empire Ended?

words and protest photos by C. A. Matthews 

I was driving to a local college this past week to hear a talk by a friend about her time living in Haiti when a intriguing song came on the radio. It was totally unexpected. I was listening to a smooth jazz station run by the local school district and usually the songs are instrumentals. But the lyrics of this song struck me as being extremely relevant to the situation we find the world in today. The opening lyrics went something like this:

What if the world ended? Would those I had befriended be my friends anymore?

This wasn’t a sentiment I expected hearing in a contemporary jazz song. I wanted a copy of it*, and I was sorry there was no identification given of either the artist or the song title by the time I reached my destination. (I drive an old car. My car’s radio doesn’t have an electronic readout. It’s primitive, but it does the job. I like my car’s CD player, too.)

Anyway, the song’s lyrics intrigued me in a slightly different way than considering the end of all life on Earth. What if the empire ended? What would life be like without the US empire? What if today—not next year or the next decade—the US empire came to a crashing halt? That’s it—it’s dead and gone. What would life be like for the vast majority of us?

For one thing, I’m sure my friend’s story about her time in Haiti would have a happier ending. The US empire has meddled, couped, invaded, and generally taken advantage of that small Caribbean country over and over and over again. (Read Major General Smedley Butler’s War Is A Racket to see how he felt about his part in it.) I believe the US government owes reparations to the Haitian people for our imperialist treatment of them—and to many others as well.

So, what if the empire ended? Would those whom Americans have betrayed become our friends again? What would the world be like if the driving force behind empire building (that is, capitalism) no longer existed?

Let’s do a thought experiment with some recent headlines...

 

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This article is the 546th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another ten years. 

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Is Socialism The Answer?

by C. A. Matthews

When skies are cloudy and dark (like they are here most days in November), it’s hard imagining you’ll ever see the sun again. But then a little light starts to trickle through those thick clouds and then just a little more light and then… Suddenly the orange-red sun explodes across the horizon and bathes the bleak autumn landscape in its warm glow. You breathe a sigh of relief. All is not lost. There is hope in the world.

This past week gave Americans a glimmer of hope that perhaps all is not so dark or lost.

Everyone is talking about Zohran Mamdani winning the New York City mayoral election, so I don’t really feel like discussing his personal achievement of his win as much as the achievement of the voters of NYC. The voters’ achievement is what I find a glimmer of hope in.

How so? New Yorkers were inundated with an insane amount of propaganda—dare I call it hasbara—from Zionist donors who tried to equate a vote for Mamdani as a vote for Sharia Law and endless Islamic jihad. The videos and memes financed by the other candidates’ wealthy donors were just disgusting. Some went beyond the pale. It’s really telling that racism and Islamophobia is still very much alive and well in the US. The Civil Rights Movement of the last one hundred+ years counts for nothing to the billionaires, obviously.

But what I really found encouraging in all this distasteful mudslinging was that NYC voters didn’t fall for it. They didn’t let the smears and the name-calling dissuade them from voting for Mamdani. I praise them for seeing through the bullshit and standing up for themselves. What really gives me hope is that they were even okay with the ridiculous “He’s a Commie!” style insults hurled at Mamdani. It didn’t slow down New Yorkers from voting for him, at least not in significant numbers to cost him the election...

 

To find out if socialism is the answer, please read the rest of the article by copying or clicking on the following link: 

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Happy Armistice Day.

This article is the 545th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another ten years. 

You can make a donation at https://paypal.me/camatthews or Buy Me a Coffee or Ko-fi. Every little bit helps since this is my only source of income. Thank you. 

 

 

The Winning Team

It’s been a long and stressful week. Rain and pain have been my personal challenges. I know I have nothing really to complain about when compared to the hell others are enduring in places such as Gaza or Sudan. Still, you have to wonder what life would be like if it wasn’t always an uphill climb or an endless fight against the forces of darkness with no light at the end of the tunnel. What would it be like if, just this once, we could be members of “the winning team”?

The Winning Team

a poem by C. A. Matthews

When life is tough and you want to scream
It’s best to join the winning team.
When genocide isn’t all it seems
Know that’s because of the winning team.
The winning team makes all the rules
And those who ignore them are the fools.
Since those that have deserve the rest
Their demands are sacrosanct and blessed—
By God. It’s because of their skewed worldview
That innocent people’s lives have been screwed.
But who cares? Life on top is pure cream
Because you’ve joined the winning team.

 When fossil fuels are getting lean
It’s time to join the winning team.
Those with wanted oil are evil regimes
That must be destroyed by the winning team.
The winning team always knows what’s best.
Others’ self-determination is put to the test.
Colonizers may come and then they’ll go
But don’t resist your betters—that’s a big no-no!
Any lame excuse can start a resource war—
Don’t you what “false flags” are really for?
The devastating results are seldom seen
Through Western eyes. 

The mass media’s on the winning team.

To read the rest of the poem and find out who are this week's "winners and "losers", please copy or click on the following link: 

https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com

There you'll see related article and video links, all the graphics, and be able to leave comments. You can become a free or paid subscriber and receive weekly posts in your email box, along with occasional special articles just for paid subscribers, too.

Subscribe to The Revolution Continues on Substack today. Power to the people! 

This article is the 544th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another ten years. 

You can make a donation at https://paypal.me/camatthews or Buy Me a Coffee or Ko-fi. Every little bit helps since this is my only source of income. Thank you.

To find out more about the Uniting for Peace resolution that President Petro proposed at the UN, watch this video webinar: https://www.youtube.com/live/5q-8pqiofPY