Ever notice how it’s always the guys who brag about it most that aren’t getting laid?
Since 9/11, the U.S. has bragged about its libido like the jock in high school that every sensitive guy loved to hate. But if the U.S. is as potent as it says it is, why does it have to tell everyone about it?
Like the high school jock, the U.S. wants everyone to believe that it’s gettin’ it on more than anyone else. And like the high school jock, the U.S. will rough you up if you call it out on its feigned promiscuity.
The U.S. has been fading as a global power since the 1970’s, and the U.S. response to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have only accelerated this decline.
Lacking a seasoned, capable diplomatic core, truly viable international institutions that the American public supports both publicly and financially and that can give legitimacy to U.S. efforts abroad, economic policies that effectively leverage the overwhelming power of the U.S market into desirable responses abroad, and a vibrant, healthy civil-society from which to draw on in its darkest hour, the U.S. has come to rely on the one thing it has left: overwhelming military superiority.
After three decades of humiliation on the world stage, the Hawks finally came to dominate U.S. foreign policy when the first jetliner slammed into the World Trade Center.
As would a bunch of humiliated jocks clinging to their wounded manhood, the hawks lashed out at a determined opponent too amorphous to be subdued with just a declaration of war and the crack of a wet towel.
American’s lack of historical imagination leads them to believe that they are somehow living in suspended animation, unattached from the forces that have shaped human societies for millennia.
It is hard for Americans to imagine that their privileged standard of living is somehow contingent on the suffering of billions of people, people that might be a bit angry about the global distribution of power, wealth and resources. Likewise, it is hard for them to imagine that their Government would actually take steps to maintain their position of disparity, no matter what the cost.
The United States of America is not the first empire, but it may turn out to be the last. When the Roman Empire disintegrated, it sent shock waves throughout the ancient world.
There’s no question now that the U.S. Empire will also disintegrate; even the bravest of generals fear the outcome of the impending war in the Middle East. It’s just that the shockwaves will travel much farther this time around.
Let’s all get laid while we still can.
