If not an epitaph then, the following will do as a dress rehearsal for the 'opening night'.
We Have Met the Enemy
As a metaphor for the current state of the American empire, the indelible refrain from Pogo, Walt Kelly's iconic, satirical comic strip that enjoyed its heyday throughout the 50s and 60s, is irresistible. Even taken out of its original context, the eponymous character Pogo's lament, "we have met the enemy, and he is us" still stands as a compelling, shorthand summary of contemporary and historical America. It is especially useful to keep in mind for those wishing to more fully understand the political psychopathology of this latter-day empire, along with what its ultimate fate might be, and what ours might look like as a consequence.
Further to that, there are some other 'tools' that might prove handy in this endeavour. The concept of deja vu, that unsettling synaptic dislocation we all have from time to time of previously experiencing or witnessing some event or situation but can't quite make sense of, should be kept in mind. Of course the deja vu phenomenon is inextricably linked with one of history's most indelible truisms -- what we might call the Groundhog Day Theory of History. This is George Santayana's widely parroted -- but seldom observed -- dictum, [that] those who forget history are "condemned" to reliving it.
Deja vu, for those familiar with the book, will recall was used as a very effective literary device by Joseph Heller in one of the Great American Novels, Catch-22. The term Catch-22 immediately entered the popular vernacular and collective consciousness and became shorthand for a no-win situation, itself possibly a fitting metaphor for the place many Americans might find themselves now. "Catch-22" herein becomes a by-word -- albeit accidental -- for the absurd(ist) rationalism that permeates the discourse for the foundation, rationale and justification - along with the implementation and enactment - of much of US military and foreign policy.
And whether looking at the past or present, or contemplating what could or might be, another key reference point may well be the immutable Law of Unintended Consequences (LUC; or as the CIA folks like to call it, 'blowback'). In this context it is more or less the geopolitical equivalent of Isaac Newton's Third Law of Motion -- for every action there's an equal and opposite one.
As for the LUC though, and especially how it usually manifests itself throughout the American narrative, the "equal and opposite" part is invariably not just "unintended" and unexpected, it is also unwelcome and unsightly. And in the cause of promoting liberty, democracy, freedom, human rights, the rule of law, or genuine political self-determination and/or economic and social equality, counterproductive. And most assuredly un equal!
Which is to say, the number of times that America's often uninvited, unwelcome, and unhelpful interference in the affairs of other countries via the perpetual-motion machinations of its foreign policies -- official and unofficial -- have come back to bite it on its collective a*s are legion. Some of these episodes are well known; others are not. And it seemed the more this result transpired, to the extent they were even aware of the reality of events and the outcomes, the less Americans were inclined to learn from the experience.
An appreciation of moral causation (better known by its 'trade name', karma) is also a useful 'bit of kit' to have in our reflective 'travel bag'. Not entirely unrelated to the LUC (it is sometimes known as the Law of Cause and Effect), we are referring generally to the 'what goes around comes around' edict, and it is more likely to apply at the collective level. Where it does apply at an individual level, it will often be at the expense of ordinary Americans -- that is, the least deserving -- even if such individuals aren't always immediately or consciously aware of that reality. We might simply recall the events of 9/11 to underscore this.
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