Empires (Like the U.S.) Fall When Corruption Becomes Rampant
Widespread corruption destroys empires.
By way of example, corruption was one of the main causes of the collapse of the Roman Empire:
The Praetorian Guard—the emperor’s personal bodyguards—assassinated and installed new sovereigns at will, and once even auctioned the spot off to the highest bidder [and see this]. The political rot also extended to the Roman Senate, which failed to temper the excesses of the emperors due to its own widespread corruption and incompetence. As the situation worsened, civic pride waned and many Roman citizens lost trust in their leadership.
The Ottoman Empire started its decline when the sale of offices, bribery and corruption became widespread. Indeed:
Most historians point to "degenerate Sultans, incompetent Grand Viziers, debilitated and ill-equipped armies, corrupt officials, avaricious speculators, grasping enemies, and treacherous friends.
The Yuan Empire (led by the Mongols) also collapsed due to corruption:
The decline of the [the Yuan empire] was a result of a number of factors, these being incompetent and rivaling leaders, corruption, revolts, decadence, factional struggles, assassinations, external attacks, and disease.
Toward the end, corruption and the persecution became so severe that Muslim generals joined Han Chinese in rebelling against the Mongols.
Former history professor at the University of Alabama Larry Clayton notes:
The [Roman] republic evolved into an empire and the empire grew corrupt from its own tremendous power. There arose, like mushrooms after a long rain, self-indulgent vices driven by pride and power. An oft quoted observation noted:
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” wrote the English essayist and historian Lord Acton in 1887.
Long after the Roman Empire disappeared, other empires, notably the ones of France, England, and Spain began with the conquest and settlement of the New World. By the end of the nineteenth century, European nations had created economic, military and commercial empires across much of the globe.
Watching the rise and fall of empires is like watching a predictable ballet or opera, or even a Hollywood movie, all with distinct beginnings, middles, and ends, marked by triumph after triumph, crisis after crisis, and then the resolution of it all at the end. The curtain drops. The lights come on. The European empires lasted until the Second World War, and then crashed.
***
We come full circle to our question, “why do empires fall?” An empire falls when it becomes so self-important that it loses touch with the values that produced it. They begin to think they are destiny of the world.
There is a glowing sense of power that is irresistible, and those who get to the controls lose touch with the ancient virtues that gave their people their value and worth.
Indeed, an ancient Chinese principle holds that empires collapse when:
Corruption becomes rampant in the imperial court, and the empire begins to enter decline and instability.
(Indeed, Bastiat showed that corruption at the top leads to lawlessness among the people.)
As we've exhaustively documented, corruption is rampant in the the U.S. today.
In addition, widespread corruption leads to runaway inequality. Specifically, one of the biggest causes of runaway inequality is that the big banks are manipulating every market, and committing massive crimes. Fraud disproportionately benefits the big banks, makes boom-bust cycles more severe, and otherwise harms the economy … all of which increase inequality and warp the market. These actions artificially redistribute wealth from honest, hard-working people to a handful of crooks. And corrupt government officials have aided and abetted this.
Runaway inequality - in turn - leads to the fall of empires ... through unrest or revolution.
Indeed, inequality was one of the main reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire … and inequality in America is much worse than in Ancient Rome. In fact, inequality in America today is twice as bad as in ancient Rome , worse than it was in in Tsarist Russia, Gilded Age America, modern Egypt, Tunisia or Yemen, many banana republics in Latin America, and worse than experienced by slaves in 1774 colonial America.
Institutional corruption is also leading to a lack of trust ... which is collapsing the economy.
Indeed, the U.S.A. is following the pattern of ALL past empires as they declined:
- They financialize their economy ... going from manufacturing to speculation
- They incur very high levels of debt
- They overreach in costly military adventures
- They become arrogant and lazy
- They collapse soon after their peak
No wonder the American Empire is starting to collapse ...
(34 votes)
»
- George Washington's blog
- Login or register to post comments
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
The Empire never ended.
To suppose that corruption in the American body politic is irreversible and our demise fast approaching is to misread the lessons of history. Empires do of course fall- eventually. But that end state is frequently set back for decades or even centuries by the appearance of reformers who alter the trajectory.
The very appearance of America on the world scene is testimony to a movement that rejected the inevitability of state corruption and triggered reform and renewal on both sides of the Atlantic.
Nor do I countenance the belief that America is more corrupt than other, longer established states in the Western world or anywhere else for that matter. I think the fact that large numbers of Americans are arming themselves against an approaching crisis speaks well of their recognition that change is coming and that freedom must survive regardless. This impulse does not seem to be present in any other state so far as I am able to discern. People worldwide seem convinced, or are browbeaten into silence, as to the virtue of their own institutions-- which are the very ones that ambitious tyrants seek to foist upon us so that unification can take place.
Like previous generations of Americans, the challenge confronts us. We will nobly save, or meanly lose, the last, best hope of life on earth. I am determined to justify the faith my ancestors have placed in me to cherish and defend their magnificent achievement. To borrow from our cousins, I feel this about sums up our current situation nicely...
"But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, This was their finest hour."
It is our turn to defy the odds that critics claim cannot be overcome.
I was born in the U.S., lived here all of my life, and love this country.
I write so much criticizing corruption because I hope (beyond any rationale reason to hope) that we can still turn it around.
If I thought that it was impossible to turn the U.S. back to the nation of liberties our forefathers fought and died for, I wouldn't bother writing so much.
Although I suppose it's good for the soul, either way: It Is Worth Fighting … Even When There Is No Hope of Winning
You're not alone George, more and more are starting to wake up.. one raindrop at a time. The good news is they are losing the information war, or should I say 'the dis-information war'?
My complaint is that this article simply leaves people with the impression that the decline and fall is inevitable and there is nothing to be done about it.
A beacon is what is needed, not "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here."
I think we are actually on the same page in general and I am glad to hear that you have not quit.
Amen brother
Thank you.
I gotta tell you guys about this. So I was reading the weekly wrap up over at usawatchdog.com and Greg said that Iran can get away with anything. Such as firing a rocket at a US aircraft carrier etc etc. So I wrote a reply asking him to please not lie about things like this cause people tend to believe everything they read on the internet. He go so pissed. Called me a weasel, directed me to a CNN.com article for proof. CNN for christs sake. The article actually had a quote from a commander of the US ship saying that they didn't appear to be targeting anyone or anything. And now he's removing my comments. He also told me I'm pro Iranian and should go to their state owned media for my news. Wow, I actually really like this guys site but man is he unstable. LOL, what a trip.
"..but man is he unstable."
Zackley!
The puppet is a zio-stooge as is very well proven when anyone tells him the truth about ass-ka-nazi jews pretending to be God's people, or any other ugly truth about isreal's evil through their entire time of creation. The kook-ka-loo comes apart and does zackley as you so well describe in his retaliatory slashing at you, your free speech comments, and then banning you from what as you said, was thought to be a pretty cool site with some pretty cool insights shared by many of his guests. Been there dun that...no mas!!
As the world turns, this shill-coat is just another isreally sympathizer that was once well promoted into these halls of truth, but is now disbanded from the world stage for his obvious covering up of isreals historical crimes and corruptions in the world at large. Simply put, greg butterball on usablahblahisreal site and channel, is an isrealli shill.
If you really want a round perspective of what is happening world-wide in a easy to digest form, regularly check out this good heart's work on one page, and then also on his Spotlight page for financial aspects from real guests. He will not grind you for telling him the truth about isreal's evil deeds, actions, and words.
https://www.youtube.com/user/X22Report
(check out his latest updates every day pm)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1rnp-CySclyhxyjA4f14WQ
(Financial interviews)
Say, ya wanna know what is cool?
Being true.
***
I have a theory that anyone who butts heads with Big Brother on any issue lives with chronic fear that Big Brother is going to come get him, and therefore lives with constant temptation to pick some other issue (any issue will do) and side with Big Brother on it.
Let them come! There's still one free man with an AK that still draws breath in Murica! My apologies for stealing Gimlis' fire...
Sandman, I often point out things or ask questions that go against the grain of quite a few ZH'ers. Not all, mind you, but many (esp, it seems more recently). What I've noticed is the volume of "idiot" or worse type of rebuttles from them, with nothing properly noted to rebut. It is the nature of the beast, I think, that the people who are least stable write that kind of thing. I come to ZH because there are plenty of others here that do take the time. Also (and perhaps mainly) there are many posted articles, often opposing veiwpoints, that I can read and glean my own info through cross referenceing and other research. If the comments you got came from the creator of that site you mention, you might want to question what you read there even more.
Day by day, the Land of the Free is becoming more and more of an Obami-nation.
Just print MOAR money
Just fight MOAR and MOAR wars!
This should fix everything....
Empires continue as long as enough sheeple believe in their perpetual power. Once enough sheeple see their masters as a kleptocracy of sub-intelligent sub-moral vermin, the system collapses. I.e., the "Obama as world uebermensch" delusion
corruption is the result of moral and ethical decay. ironically the rise of the homosexual in public prominence is a marker also from the greeks to the romans to the brits and the usa.
Besnook - Hmmm. That is an interesting point. You had Roman Senators with slave boys to buttfuck. Maybe its all about buttfucking in the end. Monkeys with tools we are and to think a few in leadershio think they are genius for buttfucking so well. Sorry to be so crude but that is what I see the human race does with most of its time. I am amazed we actually accomolished anything and are close to the end of our evolution. Good riddance to this nasty 3d existence.
funny aside to your point. there was a nature program that showed dominant monkees faux buttfucking lesser males as a show of dominance. maybe that is why the psychopaths like gay sex and pedophillia. that is the ultimate expression of their dominance.
Besnook - Wierd there is something to this but I am going to flush it out of my mind except to make sure to remember there is always a robber out there to buttfuck me. Maybe the happiest people find a chick that takes it in the ass.
That we are barely removed from monkeys troubles me but as said in another comment, glad we are about past it in evolution.
Becoming too much a cynic bugs me too, I am the dreamer type and these kinds of cycles kills the life the buzz on that can be had, perhaps of course the exception of railing my hot nurse chick in the ass :D
"Natural" human evolution has reached a dead end.
20,000 years ago, it took real intelligence and fitness to survive and reproduce when all you had to work with were rocks and sharp sticks. For the last century, all homo sapiens has needed to do is follow orders.
If homo survives at all, it will be as two or more species, with Idiocracy below and Elysium above.
(sorry to use movie references, but it's good shorthand)
i empathize with you. i am lucky enough to be able to head to the woods for 3 months out of the year. everything makes sense there and is real, no optimism but no cynicism, no hope but no fear, just life, live then die. predation in nature is a beautiful enactment of life just as birth is.
man on the other is one big clusterfuck of an animal, the dumbest species on earth. exercising predation of the other men for the sake of predation as an uncontrollable reflex hardwired into our dna. it might be somewhat understandable if the predation was for food, shelter or in defense but it is for pieces of paper for the sake of having the most pieces of paper. just totally stupid. it is almost as if nature gave man a self destruct gene to save the rest of the environment from us.
You might want to leave the British out of it.
As corrupt as their empire was (and it was), it was less and less corrupt towards the end.
That is why they basically were able to walk away from their colonies rather than be forcibly ejected. Except Suez of course.
Dutch, French, German, Italian, Ottoman empires all fit though.
the brits end was interesting in that they knew at the end of ww1 that the empire was in danger of unraveling because of the debt of the nation and the increasing restlessness of the colony natives. ww2 was in large part the last ditch effort to save the empire. the war pounded them(and the rest of europe) with reality. to propagandize their obvious demise at that point would have been foolish and they willingly accepted the end of empire(under the crush of food and energy rationing post war. funny how starving ends the bs). they were able to quietly dismantle their empire because they "won" ww2. in most cases the framework of the existing .gov simply transferred to the locals who were already in charge locally, economically and/or politically. there was no way britain could defend their colonies from local dissent after the war. funny how that stiff upper lip returned to the character of the brits under extreme economic adversity. the assholes began to return in the 60s and since thatcher it has become a bankers' paradise and now they are into pedophilia.
Let's hope the American people learn the lessons of history and have the good sense to walk away from their empire too. USA has all the resources it needs to be self-sufficient. And let the rest of the world solve it's own problems.
Best hope may be for Trump to be banned from Germany and Britain and then elected US president.
The British Empire is still alive and well dear friend, it is just hibernating until such a time as we can regain our colonies in the New World once the US rips itself apart under financial and social stress. Can't wait to see the Queen having a nice cup of tea on her White House lawn.
That is why you guys run around with guns, you are still shit scared of us centuries later!
Toodlepip my continental chums, see you soon.
rule brittania, brittania rule the bath tub.
Theson - You Brits already had that in 2013 with a ton of Brits on TV. Thats about as far as it goes lol.
Rend unto Satan what is Satan's.
However, your mind and heart and soul are not Satan's. Only you can surrender them to him... and he will try to deceive you into doing so... and entrap you with earthly trifles, fear and ego.
Take heart. There is always a way back.
A single trader in a global economy has nobody to trade with. The US may operate and control this single entity through the dollar but it is still a single trader. One path left devour yourself although you will devour any other you need to try and keep it going as long as you can. Rome did not collapse in a day it took centuries of decline to eventually bow out and the same with all others and will be the same with this one.
I like the neat trick of Keynes in this process and a forced expansion you can radically shorten the process of decline to decades not centuries if those most able can grab a far bigger share of the expansion each time. So you got to love where the central banks directly prop up those more important ensuring they get the bigger share.
2008 - 1 decade later, not even that and we are back to square one because of where the expansion of QE went. Well if we did it again the systen of 1% elites owning 99% will be 1% of elites owning 99.5% a five year span.
THE COLLAPSE OF RETURN FOR EVERY CENTRAL BANKER ACTION THEN where next time you do an expansion you might want to figure 1% elities owning 89% might give you 15-20 years. They will try it again and where the revolution comes in and all for it myself is that period of time must be > lifetime of a person and a decade does not fucking cut it.
YOU MAY OWN ALOT CENTRAL BANKER BUT TO OWN EVERYTHING LEAVES A NO TRADE = ECONOMY.
GreatUncle - Yep. The rate of business nowadays is in short decades. You pointed out the real empire with Central Banking. It is going to die a painful death and take 1/3 of us with it. The king is dead, long live the king.
While mostly true, we saw the Soviet empire collapse iin 7 or 2 years, depending on how you define the start.
The usual "slowly, then all at once" timing applied. It's not inconceivable that the US will go the same way, with 2008 marking the start of the slow phase. We could be seeing the start of phase two right now with a new recessionary collapse and a 2-3 year unravelling.
An analogy I like (perhaps read here at ZH):
The US Imperium is like a spectacular cloud formation which towers into the skies but, however impressive it may appear, with changes of wind, temperature or humidity, it will all dissolve.
Quickly, slowly, or in a massive storm - we'll just have to wait a while to see.
- speaking of spectacular cloud formations, check this one in Geneva Switzerland @ the CERN location :
http://www.sott.net/article/309977-Inter-dimensional-portal-caught-on-fi...
Corruption is not a cause of the collapse any more than a rancid smell is the cause of rotten meat.
Over-extension (logistics), obtuse administration (decision making without accountability), ineffective bureaucracy (bureaucracy for the sake of maintaining the bureaucracy) and runaway wealth extraction (hoarding/removal of productive assets from society at large) are more accurately the causes of the collapse - Corruption is just a natural symptom of the decay.
If you find yourself in a position where you become aware of impending doom you grab what you can while you can - this is simple human nature. To blame a collapse on one of the above alone is foolish, it takes a systemic failure of a society to collapse. They key pillars (FIRE, MIC) of our world can no longer take the full force of propping up our society; rather than going quietly into that good night, they're going to rip us apart as they come tumbling down.
BigStupid - Yes its a suicide pact. Just posted similar about a high death toll. Every empire does this. Capture the world (Central Banking in this case) then commits mass genocide (suicide in the end). Then we all get to clean it up. Lovely, isnt it? We cant evolve past 3d for my taste. This plane sucks and so does the script.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/01/03/paris-climate-conference-a-sideshow-to-more-frightening-use-of-false-ipcc-climate-science/
Speaking about corruption...
I'd question your premise, that America is an empire.
If America is an empire, who's the emperor? Notwithstanding the rampant speculation among the tinfoil brigade, Obongo and his sychophants are out on their butts come January 20, 2017 come what may. Some emperor.
If America is an empire, why didn't we annex Iraq as an imperial province and hand its oilfields to the highest bidders from among American oil companies? That's what the Roman Empire, the Persian Empire, the Umayyad Caliphate or any historic empire you care to name would have done. But we didn't.
So how, exactly, is America an empire?
In those days they didn't have fiat currencies, so they had to either loot wealth and carry it away or keep it under their control. These days it is much easier. The first act of the occupational government was to change the currency in which Iraq traded from the Euro back to the US$, which means every drop of Iraqi oil exported, regardless of who owned the oil fields, was available only in the US$. Since the US had been running a trade deficit since before the invasion and continued to after the invasion and till date and paying for its imports in US$, all the Iraqi oil exported since the currency conversion was effectively looted by the US.
I know it is not simple like what the Romans did, but not too complex for someone with a bit of knowledge and a functioning brain to figure out. The US, since its inception, had been a nation of bandits.
Got a bunch of down votes huh? It doesn't hurt to ask for proof after all. I'd suggest you might start reading:
John Perkins 'Confessions of An Economic Hit Man.'
Next you might consider reading Sheldon S. Wolin 'Democracy Inc., Managed Democracy and The Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism.'
And you might round out your reading with Michael Hudson 'Killing The Host, How Financial Parasites and Debt Destroy The Global Economy.'
For extra credit check out Gore Vidal 'Imperial America, Reflections on the United States Of Amnesia'
followed by Vidal's 'Perpetual War For Perpetual Peace, How We Got To Be So Hated.'
Lastly there's always Charles H. Ferguson 'Predator Nation, Corporate Criminals, Political Corruption, And The Hijacking of America.'
Enjoy!
Empires exist by exerting control, both political and financial on the conquered. Where the empire's influences are weakest, it will also demand garrisons for its soldiers as well as loyalty from the local armies.
Everywhere the Empire of Chaos has touched with war, puppet governments have been installed to pay tributes in the form of using the reserve currency and central banking: A way to convert a nation's natural resources into debts to the banksters, to profit the multinational industries that supply the "imperial province" and take anything of value.
America has left garrisons which now number in the hundreds (The last time I looked it up, it was 1000+ American military bases around the globe outside the continental USA, but apparently it's 700+. The Pentagon was once asked for a definitive answer to how many there are, but nobody apparently knows). As the province matures, its armies are often used as "Coalition forces" to invade new countries to expand the empire. This describes what is happening today and what has occurred throughout my lifetime.
As for Obongo, I reckon the real power of empire is in the permanent government and the shadow oligarchs living in symbiosis through think tanks, lobbys and intelligence agencies, not some figurehead who is replaced every few years.
See what's happening right under your nose?
Tent city, USA. Coming soon to a neighborhood near you. Or maybe it will be your neighborhood.
Here....take a 1:30 fly over Eureka, California....
http://lostcoastoutpost.com/2016/jan/4/your-first-2016-palco-marsh-flyov...
LIES
It all comes down to lies.
Fuck America.
I now realize I was a 'mark' soon as I popped out of my mothers vagina.
Agreed. Can anyone point out a form of corruption that does not depend on a lie (deceit?) I don't believe it is possible, but I would appreciate it if anyone can propose a scenario where this is wrong.
Payday loans.
Hm... there is deceit by omission in the upbringing of PDL users who spend ahead of earnings I suppose, but that goes to monotary ignorance.
But your point still stands, we are being robbed by phycos who lie and cheat to get ahead while leaving us to work off the debt.
Go ahead make my day: Blame Obama.
Glad to oblige...Obama is a tool and tools get the job done.
Anyone seen my Hellfire Missle? My tracking number isn't working.....
"Empires (Like the U.S.) Fall When Corruption Becomes Rampant"
More fantasy self-delusion and propaganda - regimes end/fall ONLY by force. If you are not willing to march as a widespread armed uprising into armed revolt, risking your lives, then you must just grin and endure the boot heel on your neck. You can continue with this mutual verbal masturbation, but it has no effect on corrupt oppressive regimes.
“More Empires Have Fallen Because Of Reckless Finances Than Invasion”