Sure, the US has a nice little empire going on. Without argument they are the most powerful nation on Earth, and for sheer destructive force they are the most powerful in history.
What? Not the most powerful nation in history? Nah. Not by a long shot.
There are two who stand out in my mind as being significantly more powerful.
One, the relatively short lived empire of Ghengis Khan, spanned almost clear across Eurasia, controlling more territory even that the USSR at it’s height. One man in one lifetime just waltzed in and took over. And he was SO smart about it.
He came in, conquered, conscripted a whack of the male population to refortify his troops, and kept on going. The new recruits would be marched on the front line, where it was a simple matter of kill or be killed in the crush between sides.
And the conquered? After the initial bloodshed they were pretty much left alone. They paid tribute annually and with various quite reasonable taxes. And they were left to it. Gradually, with the overwhelming improvement in commerce that comes with being part of an empire, everyone prospered and education went up. And they were absorbed. Language and culture spread, and the standard of living unilaterally improved.
Things fell apart after he fell off his horse. His two sons split the empire, and only one of them really did much of a job holding things together. The other half fragmented pretty quickly. Even Kublai couldn’t really pull off anything more than maintain what his dad had handed him.
A short lived empire, but on the whole it did the world enormous good.
The other one? Now here’s the fun part. The greatest empire in all human history is of course the Roman. You’ll argue, “what about the British empire, on which the sun never set?” Bah! A bloody mess they made of things. Barbarians, compared to Khan.
See, the Romans had longevity. There’s dispute over just when we call the Roman Empire finito, or even when she was born, but you’d be in the game if you said she lasted around 700 years. You could stretch that to about a thousand if you included the founding of the actual city-state, and some argue that you could go as far as 1200 years later, to the decline of the Western Empire.
So, a thousand years of Empire. Nobody’s come close since, and it’s a sure bet the ol’ USA won’t last that long. See, the Roman Empire collapsed (mostly) because of poor government. Sheer decadence was rotting the joint from the inside. It became more about the money and the lifestyle than about the people. Sound familiar? [ding!] And this was a thousand years down the road, not a hundred and fifty.
Those in authority were born into it, or found their way to it through connections. Success was in who you knew, not what you knew. [ding!] Before things really fell apart there were perhaps a dozen guys who really pulled the strings [ding!] and the law really was all about protecting the privileges of the affluent. [ding!] And after things started to slide down the slope everyone started clutching tighter to what they thought was theirs. Political leaders were killing off their generals in paranoia. Governers had free reign to do whatever they wanted in their territories as long as the duties were paid. A lot of greedy people got rich off the backs of the citizens of the splintering empire. [ding.] Poor Britain won her liberation as Rome eventually just forgot about her.
How many states are there in the USA? 50? nu-uh. Well, let’s be more accurate. How much territory does the USA have economic and political control over, to the point where they even use American currency? Or the ones that have their own currency but have national policy dictated by the States? And of all those unpublicized puppet states, how many have democratically (honestly democratically, duh) elected governments? A lot of greedy people are getting rich…
The game has changed, of course. Information and disinformation are a lot closer in competition these days. News travels fast. Propaganda and fact are neck and neck. The over-used mantra of “freedom” has sunk in and there are many Americans out there who aren’t stupid enough to swallow the official story. Maybe that’s why the States has only had 150 years? Capitalism alone ain’t gonna cut it.
Maybe it’s just the guns? Certainly it’s the paranoia.
At any rate, the comparison is obvious and I’ve been making it since I was about ten years old (yes, really). You cannot hold an empire if you don’t really care about your citizens. Once it becomes necessary to control them with distractions and pointing fingers elsewhere you can’t seriously expect them to respect you once the spotlight turns your way.
There are a lot of rich people in America. But if I were an optimist I’d say there are more smart people. There are clearly more smart people elsewhere. They don’t call it the Information Age fer nothin’.
Man… I just watched the sweetest interview with Jeanene Garafolo (sp!?) and she was talking about giving a stronger voice to America’s progressive left-wing.
Man, i can’t even summarize the coolness of the interview in a post. I’ll tell you about it later. :)
COMMENT:
“Janeane Garofalo”
…I had to look it up.
/geek
I guess what really makes me wonder is what defines “power” Sure Kahn owned half the ‘civilized’ world in his time, and the Romans made some pretty crazy advances in civilization, but they couldn’t destroy the world in just a couple of hours. Maybe that is why the US thinks they are so powerful. Sort of a might makes right attitude. Problem is, it is tough to argue with someone with enough fire power to destoy the earth, a couple of times over.
Good point, Dan. That’s sorta what I touched on with the opening line. Here we have the stupidest kid in school with all the guns.
And I think at last count they had enough nuclear firepower to destroy all life on the planet 800 times over.
I have to agree with Mr. Adair. With the U.S, they are all about fire “power”. No words to negotiate. It is there way, or no way. Mr. Bush just seems so anxious to puch that little red button.
Funny how you say that Adrian. The U.S preaching about how North Korea has decided to start making Nuclear Power, but that is not okay. Why is okay for them to have it, but no one else in the world? Hmmm. Makes one wonder, doesn’t it.
It’s not really nuclear power that the US wants to keep to itself. It’s the capacity to build high-yield weapons. It’s the uranium they’re worried about. It’s a subtle difference.
It always comes back to the one point that matters- the US is in it for their own interests. Anything they do, seemingly charitable or otherwise, is done in the best interests of the States.
Whenever America has involved itself in a war it has been to further their own interests. It has NEVER, EVER been about right and wrong for them, no matter what propaganda they put about.
Everyone has already heard that Osama was trained by the US. I seem to recall it was to fight in Afghanistan against Russian occupation forces.
You think that had ANYTHING to do with political autonomy for the Afghan nationals?
Your comment with respect to the US always in it for theselves, and not about right and wrong it so very true. It reminds me of the Softwood Lumber dispute going on, but that is another whole other topic for discussions
As Kass said, I find it humorous that the US doesn’t want anyone else to have nuclear weapons/power. I wonder want makes them think that they are responsible enough to have that kind of power but other countries aren’t.
Mind you they have been that way for ages. They slapped China’s hands for using coal plants and destroying the environment. This was only done after they had done it for years, and got their economy to a stage where they didn’t have to rely on that kind of power as much. Then they get on their white (grey from the smoot) horse and tell others not to destroy the environment. Same goes with nuclear testing. They did all thier testing and when they finally thought enough was enough, they told the world it was dangerous, and shouldn’t be done. What are the chances that they thought it wasn’t hard on the environment when they were doing it.
Sorry, kind of a sore spot with me!
How true Dan. I read an interesting bit of Nuclear Trivia a while back. One of John Waynes movies was filmed at an ‘old’ test site. Despite multiple warnings he went in an shot his movie anyway. When crew members started getting sick they moved the movie back to Hollywood, but not before Mr.Wayne had someone truck a whack of sand back to the aoundstage! (/me shakes head)
The way I heard it there was a very very small amount of people who worked on the movie and didn’t get cancer. Like 15 out of many hundred. Anyone want to guess what John Wayne died of?
Yeah, and I agree. Can you imagine the Roman empire with aircraft carriers? They conquered with pointed sticks.
hello to you Mr. Mischiff. I just wanted to let you know that you have the order of the two civilizations confused, as the mongol hoard conquered the romans and occupied rome for many years, But I do agree with your assesment of the american situation as they do want a finger in every pie but aren’t willing too share thier’s. MMMMMMM pie
huh?
Angel says what?