This is one of the most sobering articles that I have read regarding the our country’s condition and direction. I made a passing reference to it in a previous entry, but it merits its own article.
Republic or Empire:A National Intelligence Estimate on the United States
Chalmers Johnson gives a startling opening:
KEY JUDGMENTS
The United States remains, for the moment, the most powerful nation in history, but it faces a violent contradiction between its long republican tradition and its more recent imperial ambitions.The fate of previous democratic empires suggests that such a conflict is unsustainable and will be resolved in one of two ways. Rome attempted to keep its empire and lost its democracy. Britain chose to remain democratic and in the process let go its empire. Intentionally or not, the people of the United States already are well embarked upon the course of non-democratic empire.
Several factors, however, indicate that this course will be a brief one, which most likely will end in economic and political collapse.
I know it’s dry reading. Make sure you read that again if you have to, because if you blinked, you missed it: we’re on the short road to economic and political collapse.
These ideas desperately need to become part of the mainstream discussion. Do you know someone who needs to be awakened? Perhaps you could pass that article along to them. For a more media-rich presentation, I highly recommend Hijacking Catastrophe.
Addtional Reading
- A more in-depth review on Philosophia: Republic or Empire?
- Review of Nemesis, by Chalmers Johnson: The Diagnosis of a Dying Republic
