We Are the Children of Empire

We are the children of Empire. From the first stirrings of civilization, we can draw a direct line from the ancients of the middle east, through the Greek and Roman empires to the Germanic/British empires all the way to our dominant and triumphant empire of these United States. Our European conquest of the New World, which us Americans are direct beneficiaries, was violent, brutal and comprehensive. The Spaniards, of course, created the largest and most brutal, using genocide of the local natives as a way to satisfy their lustful greed. Once the Native Americans couldn’t provide the necessary manpower to satisfy this very Christian empire, they began the largest slave trade known to human history, using mainly Africans. The English desperately tried to emulate the “success” of the Spaniards. Starting with Jamestown and quickly moving through the Massachussetts Bay Company, the English established the American colonies as a wealth pump for Mother England. They created a systemic elimination of Native Americans through broken treaties, the use of “English Justice”, germ warfare and sheer brutal violence (see the Pequot and King Phillip Wars). Once we gained control from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific and all points in between, we moved to Latin America and began our expansion into the Pacific Asia arena. Our incursion into the international stage began with the American Civil War and extended through the Spanish and Philippine Wars and into the World Wars. Once the World Wars were completed, the British had lost their overseas dominance and were replaced by the USA/USSR dichotomy. This, of course, collapsed with the Berlin Wall which left the USA all alone at the top with the rising star of China quickly trying to push its way to the top. It has always been about money, power and control. Ego, greed, lust. The USA doesn't bother with physical conquest and permanent occupation anymore, but much prefers to establish puppet governments. Look to Cuba until Castro, the Banana Republics and Iraq. "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins is a good place to see the inner evil of our economic empire. To truly understand how this progression was possible, and why it matters to us today, it is necessary to understand how empires use energy and especially how our American Empire has used our energy resources to gain our top spot in the world pecking order. Looking at how energy propelled the American "success" story will be the topic of the next post.

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setting the framework

In the past, my writing has been sporadic in its outlook as well as in its output. I hope to change that on both accounts, the former by providing a framework and focus to the general direction of my posts and the latter by posting on a weekly basis on every Thursday night. We shall see. I am often pulled in many directions at once but I will try my best.

I have two primary goals in my writing.

1.To articulate the decline and fall of the American Empire.

This topic is overwhelming in its evidence and therefore endless in its possibilities but I will attempt to focus on a few highlights:
a. Resource depletion especially oil
b. Population/economic growth
c. Economic/societal disintegration due to the conflicting trends of population/economic growth and resource depletion

2. To convince you, the reader, that support for Vermont secession is the only moral, economic, and sustainably viable option for the coming decades and centuries.

I will address the historical record as a way to help divine a more just and equal government that is dedicated to preserving our basic human rights. This will include:

a. The formation of a truly egalitarian nation
b. The 1777 Vermont Constitution
c. Freedom and Unity
d. A sustainable competitive market place.

I look forward to this task and I hope you, the reader, will join me on this journey. What I especially hope for is that you will also choose to participate and become part of the conversation by posting your comments and opinions.

...but I love republicanism

Wow. Incendiary, volatile, angry. My previous post is all those things. At this point, I think it necessary to differentiate between Republicans and republicans.

The ideal of republicanism is a long standing tradition within the Vermont ethos. Little "r" republicanism is essentially a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people". This means that if we want our government to provide universal health care, then the government should provide universal health care. If we want to shutdown Vermont Yankee, then we should be able to shut down Vermont Yankee.

Unfortunately, the modern Republican Party does not serve the people anymore but instead works to preserve and promote the wealthy and the privileged. They serve the multi-national corporation and the people who run them. Members of the Republican Party are no longer republicans.

This is our highest ideal, this republicanism. As we lose our power to control the actions of our government, as the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, continue to fester, as corporations become more important than people, as security becomes more important than liberty, we lose our republicanism and we become...enslaved.

PS. Thank you my dear readers for waiting such a long time for a post. I will be writing more often, I promise. And look Mom...no "f" words!