History does seem to prove that empire has a 100% failure rate. But I also think Philip K. Dick’s reminder that “The empire never ended” is also valid. Can these two apparently diametrical ideas both be true?
It is clear that individual empires come and go, but the human urge to make empires persists. So some people make empires, and some people overthrow them. Is this the inevitable cycle of history? It might be. In answer to Fermi’s Paradox (Where are all the aliens?), some have postulated the idea of a Great Filter, which is that fatal flaw in every species that prevents it from spreading its brutality (aka “civilization”) to other worlds. Maybe this urge to empire is our Great Filter.
Or, perhaps it will turn out that all those human forager societies we like to denigrate as “primitive” and “savage” and whose lives we like to claim were “nasty, brutish, and short” were, in fact, the most ingenious of us all, since they generally figured out how to devise societies that could persist over centuries and millennia without empire, without large scale war, that lived within the carrying capacities of their ecosystems, and, perhaps most importantly, that almost universally allowed, supported, and even encouraged the fundamental right of people to disobey authority. David Graeber’s and David Wengrow’s book, “The Dawn of Everything,” is quite persuasive about this possibility.
The primitive lifestyle is something Christopher Ryan also discussed in his book, "Civilized to Death". It flips the accustomed narrative we currently use as a "me" society instead of a "we" society as the hunter-gatherers were.
Perhaps the most disgraceful aspect of the Iraq exercise, Thomas, is that all the perpetrators, neocons, criminal politicians and presidential supporters are all walking free with not a single sideways glance of condemnation from anyone, anywhere. When you get to the stage where crimes of 500,000 deaths of children alone fails to be the subject of criminal proceedings, as you mentioned in the Nuremberg comment and they are still welcomed wherever they go in the world and not condemned in the media, then such practices become the norm, as they are. The new standard
PS. How often do you see the word Yemen mentioned in the media. Other than those worthy people who work in that country trying to feed and care for the starving millions caused by Saudi Arabia, with all the rest of the US band of cooperating murderers?
I have been engaged for 40 years in advocacy for Palestine against all the devious dealings and support that comes from the US Congress, on my estimation, 70% + of whom are supported financially by Israel.
This is the most shameful example of inhumanity in my lifetime. I still think good deeds and worldwide action will bring the Israelis to heel, an apartheid regime deserving of international; censure.
With what they represent to have been through, somewhat exaggerated in my view, they should know better but it is the character of those people that emphasise that they know nothing about reason, kindness truth and humanity.
You NEVER see Yemen brought up. So, quick sidebar to all this...this past weekend was the inaugural event of LIV Golf, a Saudi backed circuit that was able to attract some very notable golfers away from the American PGA Tour. Naturally, Western media has magically found their integrity by questioning these players as to why they are taking "blood money" from the Saudis, citing their human rights abuses. Naturally, they never bring up Yemen as an example. For doing so, you'd need to explain how the US is aiding Saudi Arabia in the genocide. So, while the media is accusing the golfers of "sportswashing", they are complicit in US "whitewashing".
How Pre-WW II Ukrainian Fascists Pioneered Brutal Terror Techniques; Later Improved By CIA, Now Ironically Taught to Descendants -- By Evan Reif - June 9, 2022
They would force many women into the streets, where nationalists would strip them naked, rape and murder them. The men got off only a little better; many were savagely beaten in the streets with clubs and fists, as the throngs taunted and threw trash at them. Nazi reporters filmed and photographed much of this violence as it happened.
(Photos) Jewish residents of Lviv try to escape Nazi pogrom. [Source: wikipedia.org]
Many of the Nazi death camps were guarded by Ukrainian POWs. The Germans seemed to feel safe arming them as long as there were plenty of Jews, Roma and Russians to shoot at.
There were real victimized groups in Nazi Germany, but that doesn't imply that former victimized groups cannot become victimizers themselves. In fact the new fascism/fascists now seems to be based on wealth and power, eschewing national or ethnic considerations: their victims are the have-nots and exploitable, even of their own countries and ethnic/group affiliations
You are absolutely right. A dictatorship victimizes always a group who create problems in their name... when the ones to blame play the victim...
Did not Hitler himself sold himself to the people and played victim...?
You see in religious terms on passover they do exactly that... they give all their sins to the lamb... then the lamb is sacrificed... and their sins are gone.
Then they sing the kol nidre which is an absolution and they are free from guild sin and other burdens...
Every lie is forgiven... every contract unvalid... a license to lie.
And I give you an example for that.
They sell you their "Green new deal" which basically is a scam claiming net zero by 2050.
I on the other hand have Inventions that we can achieve Absolute Zero from now to eternity and we all benefit from this.
I am excluded from society because I have a real solution a solution they don't want because they want depopulation and global slavery under their control.
I just posted Ukraine: the Hegemon's Last Stand where I quote Caitlin's stats on oil reserves, along with Jamarl Thomas and Malina Chen of Sputnik Radio's Faultlines: https://youtu.be/wZFYQtRtoSk
Tell that to the Chinese billionaire who owns the glass factory in America or to the CCP who owns Smithfield. What wall? LOL indeed. China and America have switched places. America wants to build its own Great Wall (on the Southwest border) and China has eviscerated its Great Wall hence its Belt & Road.
My brother (who worked for NATO) used to tell me China was going to take over the US. What then? I asked. Then they'll make us work for them, doing shitty manual labor jobs. That seemed pretty inefficient to me. How long would it take the Chinese guard to holster his gun and grab the shovel, saying 'give me that, you idiot, you have no idea what you're doing!'
****In this documentary, hopes soar when a Chinese company reopens a shuttered factory in Ohio. But a culture clash threatens to shatter an American dream.****
"It's like they don't even know what the rules are."
That's a quote from one of the black American workers at the Chinese glass company. He's referring to the Chinese owners and management. Many of the Chinese and Russian propagandists in these comments sections have been parroting the meme about the rules-based world, or the end of it. This is what that means for China. It means there are no rules when it comes to how they treat workers. Workers are slaves and they will be treated however the owners and management deem fit. This is your world without rules. Enjoy. You fought hard and well for it. A job well done. The Chinese billionaires thank you for your service. Now it's time to get to work. No more life of leisure.
This is a time of transition. Tyranny is not ever going to be acceptable, nor last very long, because human beings won't submit to it for very long. The days of "instant" this and that are over, if they ever truly existed at all...
We would do well to imagine what we want, visualize it, and keep doing that, and eventually we will find the path to make it manifest. That's the magic of LIFE...
PayPal is a CIA organ, ala Musk. Deplatforming will only be done with CIA is confident that they already have in place better ways to track funding via other channels on people/organ under observation.
Water is the only way forward and this technology exists for over 30 years and is withheld from us because of the pseudo fascist nature of economy and politics.
Only a change of perception will free us from slavery.
Brilliant as always - In Canada, we are watching the same nonsense from the Public & Political Parties. It is 100% pure Political Cowardice to state that China or Russia are responsible for the destruction of the Middle Class = accomplished by our "leaders" I believe there is a term for what is happening now = "Rhodesia Solution". As far as our Fabulously Wealthy Criminal Leaders walking free - It always amazes me as to how fellow citizens can agree on the Iraq scam/Syria scam/Libya scam/Financial Mortgage Crisis/Covid scam/Iran Contras/MK Ultra/Co-Intel Pro/Op Chaos/Yemen, Somalia, Ethiopia war crimes - yet after at least 30 years of Pure Deception by Empire with all these "Leaders" now Billionaires - these same fellow citizens, cling desperately to the US Establishment narrative for 911 - I feel sorry for most who cannot seem to connect the obvious dots of History. SWJW.
US policy has always been based on self-interest tarted out with a halo: their closest alliances are more often than not a rogues gallery presented as fine art, until no longer useful and a blight on the cost/benefit equation that rules the political scene.
Empires who tried to rule the world:
Romans
Greeks
Brits
Nazis
Soviets
America
The previous ones failed. What makes anyone think that the US will?
And yes, China built a wall.
History does seem to prove that empire has a 100% failure rate. But I also think Philip K. Dick’s reminder that “The empire never ended” is also valid. Can these two apparently diametrical ideas both be true?
It is clear that individual empires come and go, but the human urge to make empires persists. So some people make empires, and some people overthrow them. Is this the inevitable cycle of history? It might be. In answer to Fermi’s Paradox (Where are all the aliens?), some have postulated the idea of a Great Filter, which is that fatal flaw in every species that prevents it from spreading its brutality (aka “civilization”) to other worlds. Maybe this urge to empire is our Great Filter.
Or, perhaps it will turn out that all those human forager societies we like to denigrate as “primitive” and “savage” and whose lives we like to claim were “nasty, brutish, and short” were, in fact, the most ingenious of us all, since they generally figured out how to devise societies that could persist over centuries and millennia without empire, without large scale war, that lived within the carrying capacities of their ecosystems, and, perhaps most importantly, that almost universally allowed, supported, and even encouraged the fundamental right of people to disobey authority. David Graeber’s and David Wengrow’s book, “The Dawn of Everything,” is quite persuasive about this possibility.
The primitive lifestyle is something Christopher Ryan also discussed in his book, "Civilized to Death". It flips the accustomed narrative we currently use as a "me" society instead of a "we" society as the hunter-gatherers were.
If America transitions from rabid murderous empire to 'honest' nation-oligarchy as safely as Greece, Rome, and the Brits we'll be getting off lightly.
Considering that there was no Nuremberg-style court for the Iraq War, it looks like that will be our destiny.
Perhaps the most disgraceful aspect of the Iraq exercise, Thomas, is that all the perpetrators, neocons, criminal politicians and presidential supporters are all walking free with not a single sideways glance of condemnation from anyone, anywhere. When you get to the stage where crimes of 500,000 deaths of children alone fails to be the subject of criminal proceedings, as you mentioned in the Nuremberg comment and they are still welcomed wherever they go in the world and not condemned in the media, then such practices become the norm, as they are. The new standard
PS. How often do you see the word Yemen mentioned in the media. Other than those worthy people who work in that country trying to feed and care for the starving millions caused by Saudi Arabia, with all the rest of the US band of cooperating murderers?
Not to mention 20,000 Palestinian deaths at the hands of the Zionist Israeli ‘defence’ Force enabled by $5B gift per year from American tax payers.
This $5B is ring fenced just for the military on top of the $4B gifted per year for domestic use.
Are Americans aware of this as their cities go bankrupt and infrastructure crumbles?
Thanks Patrick.
I have been engaged for 40 years in advocacy for Palestine against all the devious dealings and support that comes from the US Congress, on my estimation, 70% + of whom are supported financially by Israel.
This is the most shameful example of inhumanity in my lifetime. I still think good deeds and worldwide action will bring the Israelis to heel, an apartheid regime deserving of international; censure.
With what they represent to have been through, somewhat exaggerated in my view, they should know better but it is the character of those people that emphasise that they know nothing about reason, kindness truth and humanity.
Very pleasing to see your comment.
You NEVER see Yemen brought up. So, quick sidebar to all this...this past weekend was the inaugural event of LIV Golf, a Saudi backed circuit that was able to attract some very notable golfers away from the American PGA Tour. Naturally, Western media has magically found their integrity by questioning these players as to why they are taking "blood money" from the Saudis, citing their human rights abuses. Naturally, they never bring up Yemen as an example. For doing so, you'd need to explain how the US is aiding Saudi Arabia in the genocide. So, while the media is accusing the golfers of "sportswashing", they are complicit in US "whitewashing".
Well put, Thomas.
Thank you, Caitlin
You are kicking serious ass today!
All the best people are quoting you lately. Good work.
And - a bit of history:
How Pre-WW II Ukrainian Fascists Pioneered Brutal Terror Techniques; Later Improved By CIA, Now Ironically Taught to Descendants -- By Evan Reif - June 9, 2022
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/06/09/how-pre-ww-ii-ukrainian-fascists-pioneered-brutal-terror-techniques-later-improved-by-cia-now-ironically-taught-to-descendants/
They would force many women into the streets, where nationalists would strip them naked, rape and murder them. The men got off only a little better; many were savagely beaten in the streets with clubs and fists, as the throngs taunted and threw trash at them. Nazi reporters filmed and photographed much of this violence as it happened.
(Photos) Jewish residents of Lviv try to escape Nazi pogrom. [Source: wikipedia.org]
Many of the Nazi death camps were guarded by Ukrainian POWs. The Germans seemed to feel safe arming them as long as there were plenty of Jews, Roma and Russians to shoot at.
I don't need your History I need a Future...
And please.. do not forget that that 150.000 Jews served in the Nazi War machine.
Hitler was a Rothschild... Himmler Keitel Goebbels Rosenberg all were of Jewish Heritage...
That is history.
And the problem creators of our time... Soros Schwab Yellen Merkel Yuval Harari and many more are all Jewish....
They need to be held accountable.
There were real victimized groups in Nazi Germany, but that doesn't imply that former victimized groups cannot become victimizers themselves. In fact the new fascism/fascists now seems to be based on wealth and power, eschewing national or ethnic considerations: their victims are the have-nots and exploitable, even of their own countries and ethnic/group affiliations
You are absolutely right. A dictatorship victimizes always a group who create problems in their name... when the ones to blame play the victim...
Did not Hitler himself sold himself to the people and played victim...?
You see in religious terms on passover they do exactly that... they give all their sins to the lamb... then the lamb is sacrificed... and their sins are gone.
Then they sing the kol nidre which is an absolution and they are free from guild sin and other burdens...
Every lie is forgiven... every contract unvalid... a license to lie.
And I give you an example for that.
They sell you their "Green new deal" which basically is a scam claiming net zero by 2050.
I on the other hand have Inventions that we can achieve Absolute Zero from now to eternity and we all benefit from this.
I am excluded from society because I have a real solution a solution they don't want because they want depopulation and global slavery under their control.
So I expose them wherever I can!
Hitler was not a Rothschild.
He was!
I just posted Ukraine: the Hegemon's Last Stand where I quote Caitlin's stats on oil reserves, along with Jamarl Thomas and Malina Chen of Sputnik Radio's Faultlines: https://youtu.be/wZFYQtRtoSk
"Not everyone wants what you have, dudes. You're not that enviable." LOL I love that.
Tell that to the Chinese billionaire who owns the glass factory in America or to the CCP who owns Smithfield. What wall? LOL indeed. China and America have switched places. America wants to build its own Great Wall (on the Southwest border) and China has eviscerated its Great Wall hence its Belt & Road.
It seems that humans need to get really, really dirty before they can fully appreciate the joy of bathing.
My brother (who worked for NATO) used to tell me China was going to take over the US. What then? I asked. Then they'll make us work for them, doing shitty manual labor jobs. That seemed pretty inefficient to me. How long would it take the Chinese guard to holster his gun and grab the shovel, saying 'give me that, you idiot, you have no idea what you're doing!'
Ironic, how it turns out that that's what the US/UK Globalist Empire wants!! ;)
https://www.netflix.com/title/81090071
****In this documentary, hopes soar when a Chinese company reopens a shuttered factory in Ohio. But a culture clash threatens to shatter an American dream.****
"It's like they don't even know what the rules are."
That's a quote from one of the black American workers at the Chinese glass company. He's referring to the Chinese owners and management. Many of the Chinese and Russian propagandists in these comments sections have been parroting the meme about the rules-based world, or the end of it. This is what that means for China. It means there are no rules when it comes to how they treat workers. Workers are slaves and they will be treated however the owners and management deem fit. This is your world without rules. Enjoy. You fought hard and well for it. A job well done. The Chinese billionaires thank you for your service. Now it's time to get to work. No more life of leisure.
This is a time of transition. Tyranny is not ever going to be acceptable, nor last very long, because human beings won't submit to it for very long. The days of "instant" this and that are over, if they ever truly existed at all...
We would do well to imagine what we want, visualize it, and keep doing that, and eventually we will find the path to make it manifest. That's the magic of LIFE...
PayPal is a CIA organ, ala Musk. Deplatforming will only be done with CIA is confident that they already have in place better ways to track funding via other channels on people/organ under observation.
CJ... Excellent observations, all....
Keep on fighting Caitlin!!!!
Caitlin... we need a change of perception here...
Oil we should and must get rid of.
Actually we don't need it.
The Future is personalized Energy... H² from H²O....
Read my article on Dan Nocera and his artificial leaf.
https://pfgr.substack.com/p/prof-daniel-nocera-and-his-artificial?s=w
Oil only serves oligarchs... fascists.
Water is the only way forward and this technology exists for over 30 years and is withheld from us because of the pseudo fascist nature of economy and politics.
Only a change of perception will free us from slavery.
Oil plays into their hands.
Don't do it.
“Shriek” is the perfect word to sum up western MSM’s emotion (vs Fact) driven narrative.
I'm not sure which is worse:
a) The MIC is lying bald-faced about knowing how bad things are in Ukraine's military situation; or
b) They know, told congress an we STILL gave them $54 billion in 10 weeks with no end in sight.
I've never understood the white mans' fear that black men were all set on having sex with our (I'm a white cartoon man) wives. Either:
a) You ain't takin' care of the Mrs. in the bedroom
b) You are projecting your desire to have sex with black women onto black men
c) Both of the above
Brilliant as always - In Canada, we are watching the same nonsense from the Public & Political Parties. It is 100% pure Political Cowardice to state that China or Russia are responsible for the destruction of the Middle Class = accomplished by our "leaders" I believe there is a term for what is happening now = "Rhodesia Solution". As far as our Fabulously Wealthy Criminal Leaders walking free - It always amazes me as to how fellow citizens can agree on the Iraq scam/Syria scam/Libya scam/Financial Mortgage Crisis/Covid scam/Iran Contras/MK Ultra/Co-Intel Pro/Op Chaos/Yemen, Somalia, Ethiopia war crimes - yet after at least 30 years of Pure Deception by Empire with all these "Leaders" now Billionaires - these same fellow citizens, cling desperately to the US Establishment narrative for 911 - I feel sorry for most who cannot seem to connect the obvious dots of History. SWJW.
US policy has always been based on self-interest tarted out with a halo: their closest alliances are more often than not a rogues gallery presented as fine art, until no longer useful and a blight on the cost/benefit equation that rules the political scene.