It’s an Empire, Dorothy

More than 90% of commentary about the election results comes across as pure silliness against the background of the USA is an empire. Unfortunately, the common understanding of empire doesn’t go deeper than big and powerful. If people knew the nature of empire, the rise of degenerate leaders would not surprise them. Decadent weirdoes typically stand on the bridge of an imperial ship. Even people with no knowledge of history have heard of Caligula and Nero, who, BTW, is said to have dipped Christians in oil and used them as candles in his garden. Rulers of the Roman Empire, as in all empires, were typically vicious tyrants. An empire breeds perverse tyrants as surely as serpents breed snakes.

An empire is a colossal enterprise of conquest, theft and control managed by a tiny group of the wealthiest and most powerful individuals. Always! Without exception. The conditions and circumstances vary, but not the essence of an empire as an enterprise of conquest run by little gang of power-perverted, greed-diseased, glorious thieves and murderers dressed in prestigious trappings. Always! Without exception.

The digitally wired empire of the day manages such extensive influence over the minds of the people that referring to the rulers as thieves and murders shocks the senses of the average citizen even though the claim is easily verified. We can read that less than 100 individuals own 50% of the world’s resources without reflecting on theft; as though the wealth was accumulated by hard work.

An army of hacks, pundits, journalists, agents and academics supplemented by a constant flow of cultural productions disperse the myth that the accumulation of wealth should be attributed to cleverness, implying, as a bonus, that the wealthy and successful are intelligent people. While cleverness forms a vital ingredient of many success stories, without the structural organization of the empire oiled by the blood of tens of millions of people, smarts can no more produce wealth than a camera without a lens can produce pictures.

Anyone referring to the illustrious rulers as murderers immediately becomes disqualified to render political comment. Such is the power of conventional imperial wisdom regardless of rivers of blood alongside the boots and under the bombs of the empire. Four million murders from Vietnam and Iraq alone should be enough. But it isn’t! So what’s the use of tallying the lives of Palestinians, Afghanis, Yemenis, Indonesians, Syrians, Libyans, Bosnians, Koreans and many other people? We don’t have to believe the figure stating 60 million deaths from American military violence since WWII. The four million first mentioned should be enough. Should!

The list of non-military deaths probably exceeds 60 million, but the numbers aren’t necessary to establish the deadly facts. We cannot point to any particular murderer for the deaths harvested yearly from environmental causes through our food, water and air, but obesity alone (100 million people) contributes to 100s of thousands of medical problems, sufferings and deaths. These afflictions are generated by the fuck-health-promote-profits structure of the empire. Who bears responsibility for the suicides of 8000 veterans a year mainly under the fuck-treatment-stuff-them-with-profitable-pills imperial standard? Who should be charged with the deaths caused by medical treatment (third most common cause of deaths after cancer and heart ailments)? Trigger-happy police gun down unarmed kids and get away with it. How can we expect to charge the smiling slime floating at the top of society with any crime, much less murder? Even when the chief executive acknowledges approval to drone-and-hellfire kill women and children time and time again the murders transform into a phrase of collateral damage and the empire marches on. Murder is not murder when done by imperial dignitaries unless they grab the victim’s throat in their teeth and rip out their jugular vein, which, of course, is not going to happen. They never even dirty their manicures.

We’re living in and under an empire, Dorothy. Choosing or complaining about which power-perverted, greed-diseased degenerate stands in the spotlight is like choosing between a wolf or a fox to guard the chickens. At a time when the empire may kill all of humanity in a climate catastrophe, nuclear war or both squabbling about the psychopath in chief qualifies as criminal foolishness.

Many things can be done, but engaging in the games of the rulers and playing by imperial rules is not one of them. The masters of the empire are the enemy not sporting opponents. Survival is no game. Do you smoke, drink sodas, frequent junk restaurants, subscribe to corporate publications or entertainment services, take part in their elections, shop where workers are underpaid, eat food containing palm oil, stand during the national anthem, fail to embrace humanity as your main identity… ? These are a few of the things supporting the empire. Without your support the empire can’t stand. With your support we all perish. That’s the real and only choice.

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“Help is not on the way.”
Kurt Vonnegut

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The West Bank is now the Judea-Samaria area.