Interlude: Dark Ages America Part-5

Continued from Part-4.

7. The next topic Berman touches upon is the American Empire.

a. The author maintains that the conflict with the Soviet Union was really a means towards the ends of empire. The Cold War was a case of manipulation by extreme opportunists on both sides used it to justify war expenditures.

b. Blowback, a term popularized by Chalmers Johnson, is used repeatedly to describe the unintended consequences of the pursuit of empire.

c. Empire represents the intermediate step between decadence and barbarism without any civilization in the meanwhile.

d. Empire can only be fought through terrorism.

8. The meaning of 9-11 is the subject of an entire chapter. The author views the aftermath of those events as the point of no return towards inevitable decline and a new Dark Age. Americans could have chosen to use those events as a source for inspiring self-reflection, as others have chosen to do. Rather the USA began to accelerate down the path of self-destruction by catering to our basest impulses. Hence, world sympathy has gone down the tubes, and the terrorists responsible for 9-11 have become stronger. Bin Laden is now quoted in speeches. In addition, it opened the door to manipulation via propaganda to start an unwinable (as its objectives are indefinable) war in Iraq (and Afghanistan). In addition, the Iraq conflict showed the disdain of the US for civilization itself by the failure to protect the historical treasures of the cradle of Western Civilization.

Next.