Is that the fragrance of smoke? What’s that red glare? Must be absolutely nothing.
Why are the wheels coming off the American Project? Afghanistan is front and center in the news flow for apparent reasons, however given that I have no know-how on that country or America’s role there, I am stipulating these are general remarks from a systemic perspective.
By the American Job I suggest 1) worldwide hegemony in both difficult and soft power and 2) American Exceptionalism, the belief that America is not simply uniquely strong but uniquely right in regards to holding the high moral ground.
1. If you don’t comprehend the problem, you can’t perhaps reach a service. It’s long been painfully apparent that U.S. presidents would be finest served by their closest consultants being anthropologists with long in-country experience in whatever country the U.S. is engaging.
Any anthropologist with experience in Vietnam would have dismissed the concept of an American “victory” by any methods as a possibility. The very same can be said of Iraq and Afghanistan. Sadly, American presidents do not listen to anthropologists, they listen to consultants without any genuine understanding of the nation and individuals the U.S. is engaging. Lacking a grasp of the circumstance, every characterization of the “issue” will necessarily be totally misdirected and the proposed “solutions” can not but fail miserably.
Rather than seek a deep understanding the nation and its people, U.S. presidents and their consultants see everything through the distorting lens of great-power rivalries, geopolitical juggling, American prestige and power and a profoundly parochial, provincial view of other cultures and societies. The resulting ignorance of U.S. policy is stupefying.
Willful lack of knowledge and blind ambition are deadly brother or sisters.
2. Given that the U.S. can conjure trillions of dollars out of thin air at will, money is squandered freely with no accountability or care. From a systemic perspective, the main function of the Federal Reserve is to conjure as many trillions of dollars as needed to provide the American Task with money to misuse– as long as a healthy piece of the squandered trillions butters the bread of private interests in the U.S.
3. There was a weary-sounding stating in the Vietnam years: “It’s the only war we got.” Undoubtedly. Historians of Imperial Projects may well keep in mind approvingly that America is a war-like nation. This is not unusual in history, rather it is the guideline. Being war-like is unexceptional.
America’s Founding Fathers were exceptionally careful of foreign entanglements and wars because America was very weak in its preliminary decades, doing not have a Navy for defense and power forecast. Nevertheless, war was viewed as inescapable within a years following the final ratification of the Constitution and the Costs of Rights (the Barbary War in 1801) and a full-blown war with Great Britain followed 11 years later on (1812 ). Two wars in 21 years more or less set the pattern.
As numerous have actually noted, war is an incredibly rewarding company if one handles to keep the conflict out of the home country. War profiteering has as long a history as war itself, and it took remarkable efforts to put any sort of limits on war profiteering in the “excellent war,” World War II.
If a nation ends up being politically and financially depending on a large, politically powerful and politically sacrosanct industry, then that industry will continue to do what it does, no matter conditions. If that industry is construction, then when useful construction tasks diminish, the industry will absorb billions constructing bridges to no place, totally supported by the political and monetary classes.
If the market is warfighting, then wars will manifest, with “victory” being the specified objective however usage and expansion of assets being the actual purpose. Wars that can not possibly be “won” in any conventional sense are the ideal methods to maximize revenues and the usage of properties.
It’s nothing personal, it’s just the method things work: “It’s the only war we got.” Provide a better war and the make-work one drops away.
The war-fighting cartel is not distinct. America is little bit more than a putrid porridge of politically powerful and politically sacrosanct cartels: Big Tech, Big Pharma, Big Ag, Huge Banks, College, Sickcare, Bread and Circuses and so on. The only constants are unlimited greed and near-infinite corruption and incompetence.
4. Sunk expenses. When the expenses of some misadventure/ badly carried out investment reaches a limit, stakeholders can’t stomach the loss to their pride and status, never ever mind the financial losses. Therefore they continue doing more of what’s stopped working spectacularly.
The sunk costs of America’s misadventures are piled to the rafters however losses aren’t enabled, so prevailing policy is to stack the losses and dangers ever higher, hoping no one will link the dots when the whole rotten construct collapses in a stack of wonderful thinking and corruption.
5. The hubris of endlessly printed trillions. Considering That the Federal Reserve has actually gotten away with printing trillions out of thin air to buy the U.S. Treasury bonds that have actually conjured trillions out of thin air for the federal government to squander, American Exceptionalism now includes the eventually-fatal hubris that we can constantly purchase our way out of trouble by conjuring another trillion or 3 out of thin air.
Since there’s no limitation on the number of trillions we can conjure out of thin air, there’s no limitations on how many trillions we can waste and therefore there are no limitations on American Exceptionalism or the American Project.
Because everything is for sale, and we can conjure endless trillions, then we can buy whatever is needed to keep the wagon rolling permanently.
Till the wheels fall off, obviously. And when that occurs, then we can always release the last sanctuary of stopping working enterprises:
6. Managing stories has changed in fact solving pushing issues. It’s now impossible in America to actually attend to pressing problems without stepping on the toes of one politically effective and politically sacrosanct cartel or another, therefore problems fester and multiply to the point they can not be resolved within the status quo, no matter the number of trillions are conjured and wasted.
To mask the coming collapse, stories must be securely managed. Since collapse can’t be averted without making effective opponents, the only politically expedient alternative left is to eliminate any dissent that questions the formally sanctioned happy-stories.
When a society and a state give up the look for services since genuine options will negatively affect politically powerful cartels, collapse is only one step away. It’s all fun and video games in the unwinnable wars and simulacra reforms stage, however handling narratives isn’t the same as managing the real life, and the real life ultimately squashes the happy-story narratives and those who actually thought them.
Is that the aroma of smoke? What’s that red glare? Must be absolutely nothing. The wheels are coming off, but never ever mind, here’s a happy story to tide you over until the banquet of effects is served.
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