This Empire does not, at present, give any outward signs of imminent collapse: in fact, it could be argued, to the contrary, that it has attained a level of military, economic, and even "cultural" supremacy unparalleled in Western history even if its territorial expansion is -- in relative terms -- inferior to the territorial ubiquity reached by some of its great predecessors, such as the Roman, the Ottoman and the British Empires.
There are however some signs of internal dissolution which need to be examined.
At the grass roots level it is easy to note a growing disaffection with the established political picture. In most of the principal western Democracies, public opinion appears to be distancing itself ever more from the idea of participation in political life. This trend, which is now perceivable also in the United States, is shown both by a diminishing interest in the electoral process -- some countries, until recently known for massive voter turnouts, now appear satisfied if it exceeds the 50% mark -- and by an increasing drift towards "anti-establishment", possibly xenophobic or even racialist ideologies.
This situation somehow appears to encourage the flourishing of hubristic attitudes on the part of the ruling classes. These attitudes are enhanced by the paranoia induced, with the complicity of the media, by the concept itself of an ill-defined and unjustified "war on terror", by the conflation of "terrorism" with "Islam" as well as by other trends which appear to justify aggressive and jingoistic attitudes, until recently resisted -- at least in Europe -- with ready reactions of public opinion.
This concentration of attention on aggressive stances, as well as the attempt to carry public opinion along the same path do not take into account the instant diffusion of information and opinions, even without media support, and, consequently the ruling classes are more and more isolated from the people they claim to represent. On the international level, this leads to ignoring the growing awareness on the part of the poorer countries of the truth behind aid, i.e. "the deforming orthopaedics of loans and the draining of wealth that results from foreign investment" (Eduardo Galeano). As a consequence, the Empire is increasingly friendless, and this adds to the tendency of blaming "ungrateful foreigners" for many of its own problems.
The desperate need to confirm superiority by assembling well armed allies and persuading them -- often against better judgement of ordinary citizens -- to take on attitudes of ever growing menace and provocation against other great powers, which, as the media often gleefully tells us, are not really as great as all that, could lead to unforeseen confrontation with countries such as Russia or China which certainly do not wish for an armed conflict with the "Empire", but, paradoxically, have no reason to fear it, in spite of growing, and increasingly hysterical sabre-rattling on the part of the Empire and its allies.
The main target for the West's aggressive provocations is currently Russia (China is a distant second), but the leaders of the Empire and its acolytes need to remember
that in the course of the past three centuries three "invincible" armies (Sweden, France and Germany) have invaded Russian soil and there found their nemesis. It would also be useful for them to recall that, if matters should escalate to the point of involving the threat of nuclear confrontation, most European NATO partners would have to desist under pressure from that public opinion which they now appear to ignore and which could unexpectedly make its presence felt.
But the attitude continues to be aggressive, the aggressive intents still couched in a terminology no-one is ready to believe anymore (as information increases with geometric progression), and all know that the Empire's great army, the greatest the world has ever seen, has been unable to emerge victorious from a conflict since 1945.
The giant is, indeed, walking on eggshells, and the danger is (as some of the statements and attitudes by leading presidential candidates would indicate) that, at the end of the day, carried by its own impetus it could reach a Samson moment, and decide to perish dragging the entire temple with it.
Carlo Ungaro
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