Escaping the squalor of a dying empire
The aftermath
We must ask ourselves why, after five thousand years of written history and scholarship, we continue to allow warmongering fools to seize the agenda and destroy entire civilizations. The answers aren’t merely blowing in the wind—they are within our grasp, long over due for harvesting.
“Sometimes it is the villain, or villains, who are in need of an even greater villain. Especially in a time of crisis, unscrupulous leaders and politicians can cynically exploit the ancient and deep-rooted impulse to scapegoat to deflect and distract from their own inadequacies and evade, or seek to evade, their legitimate burden of blame and responsibility.” —https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/hide-and-seek/201312/the-psychology-of-scapegoating
“A scapegoat is someone outside of your group who also stands out from the social norm. The group then uses these scapegoats to transfer blame and negative emotions because they do not share the desires of the group.
In an instant, the problems of the group are gone because of the transfer of blame onto the scapegoat. Since scapegoats are identified as the root cause of the problem, they create a sense of relief, healing, and even protection for the group”—.https://bigthink.com/videos/scapegoat/
Pride of place and being is always a worthy notion, and I would even claim it as a basic human right. Needless to say we citizens of Western civilization don’t have much to crow about now or for the immediate future. Human rights are being arbitrarily crushed out of existence. Genocide, war and potential wars dominate the Western agenda. The crazies have gone from the basement to the White House. Governments are morally and fiscally bankrupt and have been bribed into abdication. The days of legislators giving standing ovations for war criminals are no longer appropriate. The shattered collective West is suffering the ultimate“shock and awe” self-inflicted and it does not know the definitions of Pyrrhic or psychopathy— Where DC is alleged to have more psychos per square foot than any other city. This is easily confirmed as they are more than willing to condone genocide and carpet bombing civilian populations on a daily basis.
We might ask ourselves where we are now. If we consulted the legacy of the learned Swiss psychiatrist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross we are suffering grievous denialism. John Ralston Saul might write a sequel to his well-known book The Unconscious Civilization with “totally” inserted before civilization. He might even go looking for an antonym for civilization. I can also list a whole battalion of writers who over too many decades warned us of what is happening now.
Gaza , it is worth mentioning, has been a death zone for writers and journalists where hundreds have been shot down.
It might cause a trifle of embarrassment that the origins of the NOW trace back to the Greeks and Romans. It might be of interest that both Russian and Chinese leaders are very knowledgeable in matters of history. China has several universities where foreign policy administrators, ambassadors and diplomats are trained. They must be proficient in the language of the country where they serve. Where as the empire shuns diplomacy in favor of militarist bullying and conducts politics as a blood sport.
I suggest we are now in the aftermath, after the fall, where chaos ensues. Where “unscrupulous” leaders have gone mad and are running for cover unable to cope with the conflagration that has come about decades in the making, of their and their predecessors making. Empire’s might seen be as cesspools of moral corruption where the “higher immorality” is practiced and claims immunity from prosecution.
Future historians will record that the Ukraine conflict is a seminal event in the collapse of the empire. What we are seeing now is the aftermath. It was a poorly conceived and immoral proxy war where Ukraine was the sacrificial lamb in service to the fading empire’s hegemonic delusions. Europe was sacrificed as its trading relationship with Russia was destroyed as a result of backfired sanctions and the US blowing up the Nord Stream pipeline. It was no coincidence the Gaza genocide arrived when it did as it too is a last ditch brutal attempt to resolve the long standing dual-state issue. Israel’s criminal leadership has gone “all in” and there is talk of civil war at home and lusting for war with Iran. (We have to ask why Israel is allowed to have nuclear weapons and Iran not ?). There are also indicators that war could break out in the Balkans. There is Washington’s ludicrous tariff war sowing chaos internationally and already starting to flounder.
The empire has sponsored a conflagration putting itself well down the road to being an isolated pariah state. The healing of what is happening NOW will require decades of reconciliation.
Empires are the infantilization of those who lead them and those subjugated by them. For leaders, the consolidation of power often removes accountability, fostering impulsive and self-serving behavior. For the subjugated, systemic oppression limits autonomy and forces compliance, reducing opportunities for independent growth or decision-making. This dynamic ultimately creates a cycle of dependency and immaturity within imperial structures.
“Sometimes it is the villain, or villains, who are in need of an even greater villain.” The cheap tricks of empires are so transparent yet whole populations so willingly fall for the big, big lies. When the Ukraine conflict started in February of 2022 the West was inundated with waves of propaganda that were laughable to anybody following events. It was the first time in my life I was free to follow a war in close detail. There were sources available where the truth was being told moment by moment. The Western mainstream media (MSM) in the age of the internet was so foolish as to think it had a monopoly on coverage when there were independent journalists world wide covering events on shoe string budgets in greater detail and more truthfully than the MSM. The Empire has its hit list of designated “greater villains” eg: Russia, China, North Korea, Iran which it recycles appropriate to the expedients of the moment. Russia as the modest remainder of the USSR has been the designated shop-worn nemesis for so long Russiaphobia and Sinophobia , along with Xenophobia have become pathologies of the West.
Hate and Violence are the imports of foreign wars. Populations are programmed for the hate and stereotyping to justify the empire’s wars. The violence of wars is internalized where war is a game. Homelands become siege states captive to concocted enemies.
“The group then uses these scapegoats to transfer blame and negative emotions because they do not share the desires of the group.” The above sentence can easily be paraphrased to read: The empire then uses these scapegoats to transfer blame and negative emotions, framing them as obstacles to the empire's desires. Populations, in turn, obligingly transfer this blame to the scapegoat, endorsing and perpetuating the empire's falsehoods.
Empires under mine whole societies, morally and financially, resetting social priorities and social values. For the empire to flourish the homeland is put on starvation rations. this is why historian Chalmers Johnson stated you can have empire or democracy but not both. This is why he wrote his book The Sorrows of Empire.
Knowledge and understanding demystify fear, paving the way for decisive action and progress.
Until the empire repudiates war and its delusions of empire the American Republic and the world are hostage to its wanton caprices. Progress is frozen in time. The great escape is long and arduous as the “sorrows of empire” is a tragic tale.
“Imperial politics represents the conquest of domestic politics and the latter's conversion into a crucial element of inverted totalitarianism. It makes no sense to ask how the democratic citizen could 'participate' substantively in imperial politics; hence it is not surprising that the subject of empire is taboo in electoral debates. No major politician or party has so much as publicly remarked on the existence of an American empire”.—Chalmers Johnson
History’s Parrot is read in 38 US states and 54 countries world wide.
I think the 'role' GREED is playing is undeniable. These greedy fools are not only greedy but idiots too: when everything is said and done...they'll go down with the rest of us.
The silver lining to Canada's Federal Election is that it is still conducted on paper ballots.
I voted a blank ballot, as there is no one honest and competent enough to vote for.
Since we are experiencing unusual times I'd love an election where the majority of ballots cast are blank.
What kind of message would that send to authority?