Pax Romana

Pax Romana

 

 

By Gregg Wall (10-14-2023)

 

It was in the last decade that I began my failed empires tour.  My first stop was Berlin, followed by, in subsequent years, London and Paris.  This year, I visited Rome, which is a fantastic city, as is Italy an exceptionally beautiful country.  Home to the Roman empire and another empire, the Vatican, Rome has a staggering amount of history around every street corner. 

 

As an American and a Canadian, I find the history of empires fascinating, and how humanity - especially the predatory elite, down through the centuries - seems completely unable to evolve & grow.  While historians differ, and each empire is different, several general themes come up again and again surrounding the collapse of empires, among them:  overextended economically & militarily; troubled economies – ground down by taxation and debts; social unrest and poverty associated with poorly run economies and the staggering burden of the empire itself; and last but not least, unprecedented corruption & hubris surrounding government officials (in the case of the former Soviet Union, and in the United States today… a completely out-of-touch gerontocracy only heaps additional burdens, decay, & misery).  More specific to the U.S., a highly corrupt corporate MSM is a very big problem, along with government & regulatory capture.

 

The tax burden to support an empire, historically, is often catastrophic, a drag upon the economy, & a cause for social upheaval.  In the U.S. today, taxation – to a considerable degree – has been replaced by printing money and the power of exorbitant privilege.  But money printing and a free money regime, in the U.S., has also funded consolidation & monopoly.  Greed and monopoly pricing power has set off price gouging & wage suppression (that is to say, extreme private sector taxation).  And now, with congress missing in action (too corrupt to act, TCTA), the Federal Reserve is facing high debt service loads, as they raise interest rates to attack demand (to help control & contain a supply-side problem, untrammeled economic violence waged against the American people in the form of greed). 

 

The other thing about these empires is they are often overextended militarily and subjugated countries & their populations often push back against tyranny.  Double standards, nationalism, slavery, hypocrisy, pillaging and plunder… make for the foundation of rebellion. The Third Reich, engaging in a world war on two fronts, found itself caught between a hammer and an anvil.  Napoleon enraged an entire continent.  And debt finally eliminated the British empire.  We can already see the seeds of past failures firmly embedded in America’s toxic empire… can’t we?  Even beautiful Italy, today, no longer an empire, is deeply troubled by catastrophic national debt, a crony economy, and systemic corruption. 

 

When historians write the history of today’s failing American empire, there is little doubt that many of the same characteristics will show up yet again. But new items will also appear.  The new items will be the roles fiat currency and the transfer of extraordinary wealth into the hands of a few played in unravelling America’s representative democracy and desire to control the world for commercial conquest. The reliance upon private sector mercenaries (see the MIC) will also be key. 

 

In the end, hubris, gerontocracy, systemic corruption, moral degeneracy, hypocrisy, an economy that no longer works for the majority, austerity, catastrophic debt, and theft of the America’s credit line (by the entirely corrupt & powerful) … appear to be the overriding headwinds facing the American empire today. 

 

Can America get its act together before it’s too late?  Not likely, not with legalized bribery being a cornerstone of the United States government.  Not with bankers and oligarchs unwilling to address systemic corruption, a complete lack of accountability, and America’s & the West’s debt problem.  Add in a climate catastrophe and there’s precious little consolation in America, perhaps, being the last empire. 

 

So, it may come as a relief to many, Pax Americana may soon join the pantheon of failed empires, along with the immense human pain & suffering that accompanies empires.

 

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2023