Not too long ago, I predicted that if I live to the average American male lifespan of 76 — I’m 46 now — I’ll have outlived the United States as we know it.
At the time, I feared I was being over-optimistic, but lately I’m leaning the other way and thinking that my timetable may have been unduly timid. The United States may be something quickly receding in history’s rear view mirror by the time I start getting junk mail from AARP (“you’re 50 — join now!”).
The recent temper tantrums of the American political class and its toadies abroad bring to mind an old saying (incorrectly attributed to Gandhi) — “first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win” — and the Kubler-Ross model of grief. Our would-be masters appear to have moved forward from “denial” to “anger” in a big way.
In England, Metropolitan Police thugs (in admitted connivance with their US counterparts) abducted David Michael Miranda and held him prisoner for nine hours, stealing several pieces of computer and communications gear. Miranda’s crime? He’s the husband of Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist most responsible for bringing the disclosures of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden forward for public scrutiny.
In the United States, US Army Colonel Denise Lind is, as I write this, “deliberating” over a sentence for American hero Bradley Manning, who likewise embarrassed the political class with exposure of their crimes and peccadilloes. The prosecution is asking for a sentence of 60 years or more. Given the complete illegality of the proceedings in nearly every respect, the proper question is how, and in what amount, to compensate Manning after releasing him and apologizing to him. But this isn’t about justice. It’s about revenge.
Ladar Levison, owner of secure email service Lavabit — which Snowden allegedly used when preparing to unload his trove of secrets — recently closed down the service rather than become entangled in the US government’s revenge operation versus Snowden. The government’s response? He’s now under threat of arrest … for going out of business! And he’s not the last to shut down rather than bend over.
These are just the latest incidents in a weeks-long run of American tantrum theater. I’ll be unsurprised if tomorrow we see US president Barack Obama throwing himself onto the Oval Office carpet, thrashing his arms and legs vigorously while holding his breath.
I’m not sure which fact Obama finds more upsetting: That his gang can’t keep secrets any more, or that the rest of us can. But in truth those two facts are the crux of the matter.
Knowledge being power, the continued existence of the state as we know it — centralized political authority with a monopoly on “legitimate” violence — requires maintenance of an illusion: That government can know everything it wants to know about us, and that we can know nothing that it doesn’t choose to tell us. A situation opposite, as it were, the current reality.
Thanks to heroes like Julian Assange, Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden, that illusion has been shattered over the last few years. As a result some states have fallen, more are failing, and all are besieged. We are on the cusp of the post-state era. Thus the anger among those whose lives and ambitions are bound up with a dying institution.
Citations to this article:
- Thomas L. Knapp, Decline and Fall: The Second Stage is Anger, London, Ontario Free Press, 08/21/13
- Thomas L. Knapp, Decline and Fall: The Second Stage is Anger, Nagaland, India Eastern Mirror, 08/??/13
- Thomas L. Knapp, Decline and Fall: The Second Stage is Anger, Dhaka, Bangladesh New Age, 08/23/13
- Thomas L. Knapp, Decline and Fall: The Second Stage is Anger, Baltic Review, 08/21/13
- Thomas L. Knapp, Decline and Fall: The Second Stage is Anger, Arab American News, 08/22/13
- Thomas L. Knapp, Decline and Fall: The Second Stage is Anger, Before It’s News, 08/20
- Thomas L. Knapp, The Tantrums of the American Ruling Class, Counterpunch, 08/21/13
The federal government will cease to exist only when it loses legitimacy in the eyes of the people. This process is on-going and has been, with fits and starts, since the late 60's, but appears to be agonizingly slow. Certainly the increasing number of political prisoners (like Manning) is not helping the Feds in the long run, but so long as they are able to e.g. muster enough force to keep those people imprisoned, they're still in charge for all practical purposes.
Will the American state fall or will we simply return to our founding principles, like a PC that has to be restored after excess clutter makes it inoperable?
My recent post What else will it take to get your attention?
Revolution! I f*ing hate the government so much.
We've had a poor government since the country was founded. We practiced genocide on the red people, enslaved the black people, & have always had a system that only favors the corrupt capitalist class. But with the emergence of China as a world economic power, the power base is shifting. The real problem is corporate America will stop at nothing to keep their gravy train flowing risking nuclear war & the total destruction of the environment. Obama is a total disgrace to the memory of Dr. king.
The external facade of representative government could certainly fail- it would not be surprising, especially in light of recent developments, as you note- but that would not mean the end of the state per se. The ruling classes, always pretty monopolistic (being the ruling classes and all), have only strengthened their grip on this nation in recent years, be it economically or in terms of the security-state. Getting them to go would take more than popular disillusionment. After all, they hold the guns, in an overwhelming manner: it wouldn't take too much imagination to envision a scenario in which the external American state crumbles, with some sort of military-intelligence apparatus taking over. Such an apparatus would be hard to dislodge, especially if they exercised some judicious targeted violence against dissenters. Provided the economy didn't tank too immensely, they would probably be ok- people might not like it, but they wouldn't be willing to revolt, either, and risk facing overwhelming military might. Even a tanking economy is no guarantee that collective will is going to rise up and reject authoritarian rule- more likely, one set of authoritarians get booted so as to welcome another set in.
But maybe I'm just being gloomy…
"Not too long ago, I predicted that if I live to the average American male lifespan of 76 — I’m 46 now — I’ll have outlived the United States as we know it."
Agreed. However, I am not optimistic the change will be positive. The criminals are becoming increasingly belligerent and daring in their criminality, as the masses are becoming increasingly habituated and apathetic to said criminality. Rather than suggest we are seeing the death throes of the state, I suspect the Bradley Mannings of the future will skip the kangaroo court and go straight to room 101.
Widower, if you read the Constitution and the Federalist Papers, it is clear that the nation's founders were striving for an ideal relationship between government and the governed. Rather than say we had a poor government and fault its principles, I suggest that we have failed to live up to those principles._American principles embrace a government of and by the people
My recent post What else will it take to get your attention?
I have to disagree, the founding fathers owned slaves & hated Native Americans. When a black person was 3/5 of a person, it's obvious there was no such "ideal relationship between the government & the governed." We have never had a government of & by the people. If you mean a government that serves wealthy white men since colonial times, well then yes you are right. If you read American history, you will find we had slavery, genocide against Indians, indentured servitude, meddling in other countries affairs, special tax breaks & subsidies going to these same wealthy white men who stole Indian land as soon as Europeans got here & formed a government. To pretend that the wars started by Obama, Bush & Clinton & the economic castrophies they have brought are new phenomenoms is to misunderstand American history. We've always had a cruddy government, & we probably always will. By far our greatest danger now is our governments starting wars all over the world. When we provoke Russia & China too much, nuclear war is bound to happen.
Mankind has made war over land and enslaved one another since the dawn of time. To think this is unique or isolated to America is to be blind to history. On the other hand, Americans have a long history of trying, not always successfully, to rise above this toward something greater. That is why the American Experiment is such an achievement in human history; for the first time since the Italian republics, a people sought to establish a limited government of laws rather than of man. Since you know American history, then you know that slavery was a divisive topic since the founding which was finally settled after the most deadly war in our history. In short, America's failures are not a failure of limited government they are failures of men.
My recent post I live therefore I am?
The Civil War was fought to end the southern secession, not to end slavery. The fact that slavery is not uniquely American is beside the point. America had slavery on such a huge scale for several centuries & with 300 million Africans brought here to make plantation owners rich, that's what's important to remember. The law doesn't work as written in the Constitution or the 27 Amendments, & it never has. America's prosperity isn't due to limited government, it's because we are separated by 2 oceans, & have tremendous natural resources. It would be nice if we had a democracy, but we don't have it & we never will have it.
One final point. There is no "American Experiment". That's pure nonsense. We had "Manifest Destiny" as a cornerstone of our foreign policy long before the term was used in 1845. It's synonymous with imperialism which we used to justify the genocide of Native Americans, the enslavement of Africans brought here to make plantation owners wealthy, the theft of Mexican territory, & all the support of dictators in Latin America so American corporations could exploit their resources & make slaves of their peoples. Today's imperialism as practiced by Carter, Reagan, Clinton, Bush & Obama is merely an extention of "Manifest Destiny". But our government's toadying to our corporations by trying to control all other countries on the planet with our military force is running into a brick wall. Rome learned the hard way, so shall we.
Not sure who this "we" and "our" you are talking about. I don't have a government, a corporation or a military, nor was I even alive during most of the events you are recounting.
If you live in the United States, you are a citizen of such, pay taxes to support the government, the military & all the subsidies & freerides corporations get from our laws. Everyone who lives here buys the products our corporations make, & many of us including me have served in our military. To say you weren't alive then is silly, i wasn't alive when Rome was an empire, but to understand our law & a lot of our culture, you need to understand where it came from.