The Phantom says of Imperial Decay:
Brilliant. Stunning, concise synopsis, or rather, epitaph, regarding the ‘situation on the ground,’ which the Freak-Monsters-from-Planet-X who run this casino/bordello/slaughterhouse “one-stop-shop” and the flesh-eating Zombies who love them, categorically deny (fear? habit? something big and evil in the works?).
Problem is — for whatever my two-cents are worth (not much you can get with two-cents these days) — this whole land of opportunists, according to Morris Berman in Why America Failed, is exactly that. The opportunists who “discovered” this continent full of profitable goodies were an admixture of capitalist hucksters, religious zealots, psycho-killers and con-men, united by their love of freedom to slaughter all “heathen” evil-doers and loot their stuff.
This suicidal empire has the ways, the means, and the demented will to take the rest of the planet with it. Kinda spooky to have Sheriff Obama and deputy Kerry cleaning up the West — in the Ukraine. Wonder what they’ll do when Russia claims, rightfully, the Czar had no right to sell Alaska to the Yankees cause he didn’t represent the people, so they’re gonna take it back, like, uh, now….
All empires are evil; they are certainly undemocratic. Can the U.S. un-imperialize itself, or must it go the way of all empires? Collapse.