The "Empire" Strikes Back?

dueler88

Please excuse the simplicity here, but bear with me. Mike, you've inspired some more thought.

This may be the "well, duh!" statement of all time, but i'm seeing a world-history societal/tribal pattern emerge here, involving consolidation of power, conquest of an "enemy", decadence, and destruction. It seems that everything about world history is all about that pattern. It applies to Sumerians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Muslims, Mayans, Vatican, Florentines, Spanish, Portugese, English, French . . . until the United States of America.

The ideals codified in our laws specifically de-emphasize, if not outright abolish, consolidation of power. The Founders knew that it was the beginning of the cycle noted above. Abandon the beginning and the cycle would never begin. Seemingly paradoxically, respect and honor of each individual is what Unites us - not ethnic, tribal or religious sectarianism.

So, are we an anomaly? Did we really interrupt/bypass this pattern? Clearly, the pattern did not stop when we came on the scene. Witness the Napoleonic French, Austro-Hungarians, Germans, Soviets, etc.

The fine line we walk is in honoring the individual AND uniting the group. Place too much emphasis on the group, and you get oppression. Too much emphasis on the individual, and you get anarchy.

So now we find ourselves wedged between two totalitarianisms - Islamic Fascism and Transnational Socialism. The former wishes a return to the historic pattern, while the latter mistakenly believes it, like the United States, to be a break from pattern. In the sociopolitical spectrum, which is really somewhat of a circle rather than a line, the two totalitarianisms are, consciously and subconsciously, finding ways to become allies in the destruction of Liberal Democracy.