Media reports have become the canary in the coal mine. “US State Department report details damning failings around chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal.” [CNN, June 2023]; “Hawaii Officials Were Warned Years Ago That Maui’s Lahaina Faced High Wildfire Risk.” [Wall Street Journal, August 12, 2023]; “WHAT US TAXPAYERS ARE GETTING FOR THEIR MONEY IN UKRAINE —American taxpayers are financing more than just weapons. We discovered the U.S. government’s buying seeds and fertilizer for Ukrainian farmers… and covering the salaries of Ukraine’s first responders – all 57,000 of them.” [CBS NEWS, 9/24/2023] The drumbeat gets louder, its message harder and harder to ignore. The empire is in a hell of a mess. At home its people are suffering. They are angry, resentful, and discouraged. What happened to the land of the free, the greatest democracy in the world? What has replaced it? The national security state, a paramilitary outfit that calls itself the law enforcement arm of the government. Although all it enforces is a new regime of censorship, a narrow window of acceptable speech, and an emphasis on identity politics. When was the last time you heard the media bring up mounting student debt ($1.8 trillion and rising], the astronomical rise in housing costs (more than half a million Americans experienced homelessness in 2022), childhood poverty (11 million children live in poverty, 14% of them children of color) and other indicators of American decline. Instead war has become the topic du jour. Forget about Vietnam, Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan. This time it will be different. Except it won’t be, will it? It’s a grim read but an important one. In “Adieu Mother Empire” we spell out the perils of living in a declining empire.
