Click here to access article by Peter Dale Scott from Voltaire Network.
This author, who has done so much to uncover the truth behind the lies used by the current Empire builders, provides an historical review of Empires, focusing mostly on the former British Empire, to argue that it is an urgent imperative for Americans to prevent the continuance of the American Empire. The main lesson is that empires inevitably degenerate into disorder and conflict. I certainly agree. Many of his statements suggest that social injustice is at the root of these conflicts. And I also agree. But, he doesn't really develop this line of thought and settles merely for "a progressive return to a more stable and just international order".
Given the level of sophistication of weapons, the increasing scale of destruction of the environment, and the approaching limits of ecosystem tolerance of these threats, I think that he understates the urgency. I now think that the degeneration of this American Empire must be stopped if we as a human race are to survive.
It's clear that all class based societies produce this phenomenon of a downward spiral into conflict and disorder. However, one must understand that privileged classes necessarily separate themselves from the rest of humanity, endow themselves with special virtues and self-justifying ideologies, and become addicted to the wealth and power that their systems of exploitation give them. Like all addicts, they no longer care or look at the future. Their only concern is getting that next power and wealth fix from their system.
Thus, it not only is imperative for the rest of us to stop this self-destructive system, but to design a new system that is thoroughly egalitarian, that eliminates the possibility of any type of class rule.
