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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (May 24, 2011)
8 in other words may24 2011 Voices From the Crowd: The End of Empire By Miles Wickstrom One axiom that is universally accepted among historians is that all empires eventually collapse. Throughout the history of mankind, there have been no exceptions to that rule. Some, like the Caliphate of the Middle East, last for many centuries. Others, like the Third Reich, didn’t last even one generation. Some, like the Roman Empire, were particularly memorable. Others, like the Hittite Empire, you’ve never even heard of, have you? One constant still remains: empires always collapse. That’s the rule. All of us should naturally have an interest in empire collapse because we happen to live in an empire - the American Empire, founded in 1790 when we trounced the British Empire in the Revolutionary War. There are several predictors that signal what historian Dmitri Orlov calls “empire collapse syndrome”, so let’s compare the predictors of collapse with current events and see where our particular empire stands in its life cycle. Empires typically – not always, but typically – collapse as the result of military overextension. The Roman Empire is a good example. At the time of the collapse of the Roman Empire in 476CE, its influence spanned four time zones and encompassed an area of the globe from Great Britain in the northwest to Saudi Arabia in the southeast. Militarily, the Roman legion was one of the mightiest armies ever assembled. Like a juggernaut, it rolled across the map, conquering nation after nation and bringing them under the itself. We repeat ourselves. thumb of Rome. As you might imagine, So, applying the lessons of it is one thing to conquer, it’s another history, where does the American Empire thing to rule. When Italy was invaded stand? We might consider that nearly by the Visigoths and Vandals and later 50% of discretionary spending in the the Huns in the fifth century, the Roman federal budget goes to the Pentagon. We legion was spread so thinly that there might consider that we have more than simply weren’t enough soldiers to defend 2000 military installations worldwide, at the nation. The lesson here is valuable: least one in every time zone on the planet. the further a nation attempts to extend We might even consider the fact that we its influence through military means, have borrowed two billion dollars a day the more vulnerable it for the last seven years to becomes to collapse. fund the wars in Iraq and In 1995, We – all of us – had Afghanistan. We might America was a front row seat to exactly also consider the fact that ranked number this phenomenon. The that borrowing accounts USSR spanned six time for $10 trillion of our $14 1 on scholastic zones and existed from trillion national debt, and achievement 1922 to 1991 - not a terribly counting. tests. Last year, impressive life span as far That level of borrowing we ranked 53rd. as empires go, but certainly comes at a terrible price. rd 53 out of 57 an imposing force in its Each year, a larger slice time. The Soviet Empire of the budget pie goes to countries. repeated all the mistakes of the military and prison Rome. The ruinous costs industrial complexes of the space race, the arms race, and the while a smaller slice goes to education, Afghan war chewed up fully 27% of and it shows. In 1995, America GDP. The result was an astronomical was ranked number 1 on scholastic national debt. Without a functioning achievement tests. Last year, we ranked cash flow, funding for social services 53rd. 53rd out of 57 countries. At least stopped. Maintenance and expansion we can claim dominance over Somalia of the country’s infrastructure stopped. and Kazakhstan, for what it’s worth. Paychecks for military personnel We’re losing our technological stopped. In 1985, it abandoned the edge. The rest of the world is crisscrossed prison system known as the gulag, not with bullet trains and magnetic levitation because it ran out of dissidents, but rail systems. America – the nation because it ran out of money. Six years that once was the gold standard for later, the Russian Empire collapsed even technological innovation - has just one though it still had nine thousand nuclear high speed rail line. The average speed? warheads and a massive military. 62 MPH. The fastest computers in the Note: history doesn’t repeat world are manufactured in China using Chinese technology. I was taught that communism was a political system that was doomed to fail and I believed it. The communist nation of China will pass America as the world’s largest economy sometime in the next 16 years. India – ya know, that nation with all the starving children? - will pass us in 2050, Brazil ten years later. Empires on a collapse trajectory typically see it coming well in advance even when they won’t openly admit it. Once the writing on the wall becomes legible, it seems to become irresistibly tempting to rattle a few sabers one last time in a show of nationalistic chest- thumping. Thus, most empires have marked their collapse with burning cities, slaughtered civilians and martial law. In a highly weaponized empire such as ours, where there are more privately owned firearms than there are people, the worst case outcome is dire in the extreme. Empires always collapse. That’s the rule. As much as we’d like to think that rule doesn’t apply to us, the American Empire will also collapse. That doesn’t mean we will disappear from the face of the Earth, but it does mean we will need to learn how to accept second place as The New Normal. While we almost certainly passed the point of redemption in 1982 when we sold the White House to Wall Street, we can still plan the transition. Will it include burning cities and slaughtered civilians, or can we create a softer landing? I sincerely hope it is the latter. There are better locations to dispose of paint than a land ll. Recycling your old paint is simple ple and something that everyone e can do. More importantly, y, protecting our environment ent is something we should d all want to do. That’s s why the PaintCare d program was created to make it easy for everyone to recycle and properly dispose of every can of unused paint. Vernonia Hardware and Supply 1026 Bridge St. Vernonia, OR Mon.-Thurs. 9-6, Fri.-Sat. 9-7, Sun. 12-5 Here’s how it works. Purchase paint, pay a small recovery fee h with purchase, then with whatever paint you want to recycle, simply drop it off at the ge. collection site for no extra charge. re You’re done. We’ll take it from there. To learn more, visit us at www.paintcare.org buy right. reuse. recycle. C edar M ist S tudios 291 A Street Deborah Steffen is a reg- istered yoga instructor and certifi ed hypnotist serving Vernonia for over 5 years. call Kim Located 5 miles from Vernonia at 20960 Scappoose Vernonia Hwy. Lovable service at a reasonable price • Bathing • Haircuts • Nail Clipping • Nail Polishing • Specialty Shampoos Hypnotherapy • • • • Stress/Pain Management Weight Loss Stop Smoking Self Confi dence... • • Tues & Thurs 9-10AM Mon & Weds 4:30-5:30PM 503-429-2103 CedarMistStudios.com Yoga
