by Rod Amis
DANCE OF DEATH - Rod Amis's sixth post talks delves deeper into the reasons for apocalyptic thought while divulging in digression..
17 August 2006: I didn't even want to start this way, but I was left without a choice, particularly after reading Is the Contagious Festival Rigged?. You have to wonder about these things.
MiniMe: What did I tell you? Do you want to end up like Sonny Corleone with his -
Me: Stop right there! You'll get me kicked off for obscenity.
MiniMe: What-EVER. Everybody knows that Sonny Corleone line anyway.
But you see my point, right? Besides my humor-value, Dinosaur-Dude, what do you have going for you in this project that would make people tell their friends and them tell their friends. I have MADE you!
Me: In the manner that Bill O'Reilly made his producer at Fox News, you mean?
MiniMe: Don't be a smartass.
Take it from me, Bubbie, unless you decide to sharpen your video skills or learn to do some QuickTime movies, you don't stand the chance of a snowball on the surface of the sun in this Festival.
People want virtual television, Dude, not a profusion of words. Get a clue.
Me: Thanks for your support.
MiniMe: One thing I gottah admit, you make a half-decent straight man.
I know you don't take my advice but listen to this: get yourself a front woman. Somebody who will be feminista eye candy for the guys and come off as smart and snarky for the gals and you are in like Flynn. Trust me on this.
Me: I get it. PROMOTE the false reality instead of what is in the interests of the human race! You make me sick.
MiniMe: Jeez! Don't get all "Matrix" on me, Dude.
Why do you think Rocketboom and The 9 work? It's the 21st Century Formula, Baby. Trust me on this.
Tell you what, maybe I can get you Jessica Biel. Whaddaya think?
Me: Should I pop a cap in you now or do you want to wait for later?
MIniMe: Okay, okay. How about this? Ann Coulter is always good for a laugh.
Me: You are the master of the cheap shot. Ann Coulter is now a caricature of herself. The woman only gets noticed because of the cheap cocktail dress that she even wears for daytime interviews. Do you really expect me to sink that deep, to talk about a skank?
MiniMe: Dude, you have moved down six places in this Festival. Don't you think you should put on the f--- me pumps? Take it from me, you're doing a heckuva job, Brownie, at becoming an unknown writer.
Me: Leave the room now, MiniMe, before they have to carry you out.
Now that I've satisfied your most childish impulses, let's get back to the heavy lifting.
The Devil is always in the details, it has been said. Just so here. It is much easier for you to consider a two minute video clip that puts music behind it to make it seem to reek of profundity than to read a few thousand words that might actually provide some illumination.
I understand your position. A picture, after all, is worth - perhaps - eight words.
For example, I'm sure that a cartoon (last month) accompanied by a song that reminded you of Monica Lewinsky and her brief and tawdry liaison with the former President of the United States did more to inform and illuminate you than anything that could be quoted or said about Edward R. Murrow. I'm sure.
Therein, Gentle Reader, lies the rub. Do you willingly accept being dumbed down?
As "MiniMe" would say: "What-EVER."
But, I must ask, what happens to you and your mush-mind when you become little more than a caricature of a human being? Are you now not then an active participant in the dance of death that you say, teary-eyed on "Oprah," that you despise?
Just asking.
I am moving, in my circuitous way, toward connecting all the dots now, something I've been told by a few of my friends from GenX, that they had wished their high school teachers of yore might have done.
As part of my journalistic career, I have on occasion been known to be a dot connector. (Forgive me, Gentle Reader, for that moment of Shameless Self-Promotion, a.k.a "tooting my own horn.")
The parallels, nonetheless, between the ancient regimes and those abiding in our own are undeniable.
Indulge me as I quote Cicero again:
Persistence in one opinion has never been considered a merit in political leaders. - Marcus Tullius CiceroOr this:
An army abroad is of little use unless there are prudent counsels at home. - Marcus Tullius CiceroOr this:
The administration of government, like a guardianship ought to be directed to the good of those who confer, not to those who receive the trust. - Marcus Tullius Cicero[I have honored Cicero among the Romans, Bierce and Twain, among the Americans and I suppose that is an extreme bias but I trust you, Gentle Reader, will indulge this bias of mine.]
Let us bring it home.
When George W. Bush moved into the White House, under the influence of neo-conservatives from Dick Cheney on down, the presumption was that the United States of America was the last superpower. The hubris of that assumption le d to ignoring China and other countries in the world who did not want to be written off as players or the importance of the emerging European Union.
(Stay with me on this, Gentle Reader, I'm about to go complex.)
So, while the neo-cons had a plan of "Shock and Awe" - beginning with the reshaping of Middle East, China was quietly buying up what was left of America that Saudi Arabia didn't already own. Hmmn.
It gets better. Because Wal-Mart wanted to become the world's biggest corporation, it got in bed with China to produce a marriage of global domination unparalleled in human history. Suddenly, between Wal-Mart (where the majority of ALL you buy is made in China) and the US debt to China, the axis of global trade (can you say "free trade") had shifted.
Most of the American people slept through this while listening to a speech about the "Axis of Evil."
But that's not ALL.
A company called Halliburton, whose CEO was once a man named Dick Cheney (name sound familiar?) was busily working in Iraq. The (dubious) plan was to build bases like they had in Kosovo (see my writing on Camp Bondsteel) that would be permanent and thus create a permanent America presence in a new region. What Cheney and cronies didn't plan on was the will of people in any country - dang! Even in the Arab world! - to be free. A potential civil war in Iraq was not in their playbook. Oops!
In this view, it was clear to anyone with half a brain, back as far as 2003, that Europe and Africa would have to economically and politically shift east, toward China. That is what we are seeing today.
If any country is a wildcard, it's Russia. Russian foreign policy is calcified and is not keeping pace with that of the East anymore and the US is so preoccupied with the Middle East's series of crises that it cannot oppress indigenous movements or democratic changes in South America.
The "balance of power" as Metternich might phrase it, is shifting. The neo-conservatives "End of History" has been proven a myth at best and a total illusion, at worst. Instead, the dynamism of history is reasserting itself.
In the process, new players are entering the game and the American Century is becoming a questionable proposition.
AND HERE'S WHY.
The chief weakness of the American Century concept, as presented by Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, et alia, was that it was almost entirely based on the idea of military pre-eminence.
Unlike more sophisticated empires - even in ancient times - it failed to consider the nature and cultures of the people it meant to control.
Pause.
Think about my statement.
Hellenism was a success because of its ability to accept other cultures and then convert them. The Roman Empire worked because it simply let its satraps - already leaders in their domains - continue to do what they did while paying tribute to Rome. Going further back in history, the Babylonians and Egyptians understood this principle.
The argument can be made that the British (and other European empires, large and small) abandoned the model. The counter-argument can be made, to what end?
The Spanish certainly made major progress in North and South America only to lose on both continents. The Portuguese ruled the seas so briefly as to be laughable. The French suffered one failure after another and only remained linguistically dominant in parts of Africa and hold some diplomatic influence in the Middle East. The Germans have been smart enough to know that their sphere of influence remains in Europe.
Russia will always be Russia and thus a global player.
This assessment of the European powers and China begs the question: and what about the rest of the world?
Come back next week for your answer, My Dears.
Good night and good luck.
Introduction to World Without End
World Without End Two: Other Necros
World Without End Three: The Mahdi
World Without End Four: The Messiah
World Without End Five: End of Days
World Without End Seven: Faith & Reason
G21: The World's Magazine
Rod's First Project at the Huffington Post
Rod's Second Project at the Huffington Post
Rod's Third Project at the Huffington Post
© 2006, Rod Amis.
E-mail your comments to rod@g21.net.
