This Is What Empire Looks Like
by C.A. Matthews
...Mark Twain, William Jennings Bryan, and all those early
anti-imperialists understood America had a choice: It would be empire
abroad or democracy at home, but it could not be both. The choice is now
bitterly obvious.
This leaves Americans with nothing left to believe in, nothing worth
lifting a finger or even raising a voice to defend. As our militarists
mull whether to reinstitute the draft to fill the ranks of the
reluctant, we should consider: This is what empire looks like. --Patrick Lawrence: The Dialectic of the Draft
What
does “empire” look like to you?
When
you spot a homeless person wandering the streets of an urban setting,
bags in hands and perhaps pushing an old shopping cart full of their
earthly possessions, does the word “empire” and all that it
implies spring to mind?
Whenever
you encounter a crumbling bridge or a pot hole the size of the Grand
Canyon as you commute to work, do you think: Wow.
Isn’t it great that the US has invaded so many other countries and
forced them to give up their resources so
we
can
enjoy
the best of everything here?
After
you’ve gifted your last twenty bucks to a friend’s GoFundMe to
help him pay for an operation he desperately needs, but he can’t
afford since he has no health insurance, do you jump for joy upon
reading a headline stating that Biden has given another $24 billion
dollars to an endless proxy war?
Are
you anxiously awaiting your turn to join or be drafted into the army
so you can experience “survivable
nuclear warfare” up close and personal in Ukraine,
Iran,
China or...?
Do
you still call Juan Guaido “el presidente” of Venezuela? Did you
support the blowing up of the Nordstream 2 pipeline, because you
believe the US should keep it’s
European
allies
dependent on us for
the fuel to
heat their homes and run their factories?
Whenever you read how Israel just blew up a home in Gaza full of little children does it bring tears of joy to your eyes because you figure all Palestinian nine-month olds are terrorists?
Are you ecstatic whenever you see the price of gasoline has jumped
by another fifty cents? Are you happy to pay significantly
more
for the same bag of groceries that you purchased last month? Is
paying your landlord yet another rental increase the most beautiful
thing in the world to you?
Do
you think the “Climate Emergency” is completely made up? “Global
Boiling” or
warming isn’t
even
a
real
thing?
That
there’s
never going to be a day of reckoning for what we’ve done to our
planet?
Can’t
wait to lock up all the “homos, drag
queens,
and rapist migrants”? Can’t wait to put women back in their
rightful place—in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant, with no
access to abortion care or birth control? The
world would be a happier place with
everyone in their proper place,
wouldn’t it?
Are
you gathering up books right now for a good ol’ fashioned book
burning? Are you keeping your kids out of the socialist public school
systems that teach how all people are equal (CRT) when it’s more than
obvious some just aren’t?
Do
you believe in active
censorship
of social platforms, broadcast media outlets
and the press? Can’t wait to shut down all opposition groups that
defy those in power? Do you get a thrill out of kicking alternative party candidates off the ballot?
Voting?
Really?
It’s
for the birds! Let the billionaires run the show outright from now
on. It would save a lot of trouble holding
pretend elections every so often, right?
Did
you learn that freedom
and capitalism go hand in hand?
Do
you
still
believe
it even
after
you’ve been
laid off from your job and thrown into debtors’ prison through
no fault of your own?
Deep
down, do you feel it’s
gotta
be your
fault if you can’t make it in an
economic system
that favors
those who are born in the “right” zip code with the “right”
last name and the
“right”
network
of
friends and family members?
Anyone can “get ahead” if they do capitalism right,
right?
What’s
your excuse? Oh,
yeah, it’s those migrants who keep “stealing” our jobs by
working for pennies on the dollar and the union members who
keep insisting on a
living wage.
They’re
making the bosses hire the “wrong” type of workers,
right?
Have
you figured out yet that agreeing to any or all of the above
demonstrates
you have no problems living in an empire?
This
is what empire looks like. If
you were born in the US, you’ve
been living in one your entire
life.
You’re
used to the harsh treatment of both
yourself
and your neighbors. That’s
because an empire will try to pass itself off as a “representative
democracy” or some related thing
and
tell you that you’re stupid if you think it’s otherwise.
You’ll
take the
denials of your
human
rights
and be satisfied.
It’s
the ultimate Stockholm Syndrome. A
co-dependent relationship where you feel you’re deserving of abuse.
Bend
over and take it and be happy that
you
don’t live in… wherever it is the propagandists
are
telling you where you don’t want to live in this moment
in time
because
they don’t have “freedom and democracy” like Americans all
think we do.
It’s
easy letting your betters
in
the empire do
all the thinking for you, isn’t it? Just nod and do as you’re
told and you’ll be all right—that
is, until
they figure out you’re not worth keeping around
anymore.
That’s
the true
beauty
of running
an empire. An
empire
can just ignore the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the
unemployed, and the
sick without the
means
to get well. Eventually they just die off from
neglect by the state.
By the hundreds of thousands, even
millions.
They
call it, “Survival
of the fittest.”
Are
you “fit”? Are you sure? Do you really want to find out when the
US
military
drafts
you and ships you out to another war for oil or uranium or lithium or
whatever it is the Empire
is
interested in this time around? When
they neglect you in your time of greatest
need?
This
is what empire looks like.
The
alternative to
empire
is practicing true
democracy
and equality for all. Folks caring for one another. Putting social
programs and the needs of the people before the
greed
of the military-industrial complex. Putting
the health of our planet and the well-being of our children above
killing and stealing from fellow human beings in
order to make a quick profit.
Dr. Cornel West promotes this
better way of living.
If you’re interested in leaving the US
empire
behind and
building a democracy instead,
check out his
platform. But
don’t wait. We
don’t have long. The
wildfires caused by our empire’s neglect of the planet and its
people are burning
everywhere.
It’s time to help
put them out by squashing
the oxygen to
the empire builders once and for all.
One huge obstacle to revolutionary change is that people can’t really see
the depravity of the empire, because they’ve been conditioned not to
look at it too closely, and because they’ve been habituated to it their
entire lives. It’s possible to help them see it with fresh eyes. --Caitlin Johnstone, The Most Important Election Of All Time
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