The Course of Empire

I've changed a lot in the last few years, politically. Three or four years ago, I was politically moderate, and when Obama visited Springfield to announce his candidacy for president, I watched with cautious optimism. Then when I actually started paying attention, I found that I agreed with every word he said. I have Obama to thank for getting me off the fence and turning me on to true liberalism.

Fast forward a few years, and Barack Obama is continuing the Bush-era attacks on civil liberties. In many cases, he's surpassing them. I don't know about you guys, but I took that personally. I feel betrayed. This guy initially seemed like he was going to be that special kind of person who comes along once or twice in a generation to really shake things up. I don't know whether to believe he had always intended things to turn out this way, or if he just got bogged down by the system and he's unable to do anything about it. Both scenarios are horrifying to think about.

I really wish I could turn off my interest in world affairs sometimes. I'm so frustrated and tired. I used to experience a certain level of shock whenever I read a story about corrupt politician getting away, or one which explained how more of our civil liberties are being raped. Now I just accept it. It's inevitable at this point. There's nothing we can do about it. So why get worked up? The problem is the economic system America uses. It can all be traced back to money. Always. I'm not even sure if you can call this capitalism anymore. FDR said "The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it comes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group."

And so, thanks to how much Obama disappointed me, I've just now recently experienced another major shift in my politics. Now convinced that the America's system does not work, I've began searching for alternatives. History has shown that communism is just as brutal and totalitarian as capitalism, so that leaves only one plausible option: socialism. I'm still not quite sure if I support socialism, but I do know that I oppose capitalism, so I've been reading about it and I'm giving it a chance. When we're kids, we're always told that we have to be nice to everybody. Treat others the way you would like to be treated. Share your things with your friends. We're taught that cooperation makes the world go 'round. Then as soon as we get out of grade school, everything shifts entirely, and it's not about cooperation anymore. It's about competition. Thinking back, I'm amazed I didn't even notice such a drastic change before now. I was into baseball and basketball and martial arts as a kid. I liked sports because they were fun. Then once we hit a certain age, they suddenly stopped being about having fun. You had to win no matter what. Crush the enemy. We were just kinda thrown into this one day, and we were expected to go along with it without asking questions. Some kids ate it up and thrived, while others were slower to catch on, but did eventually fall in line. And then there were the rest of us who just thought the whole atmosphere got really fucking dumb, and we didn't want to play anymore. It's not that the world itself coincidentally shifted from cooperation to competition the exact moment we happen hit puberty. It's just that adults, deep down inside, know full well that their system is nothing but brutality and injustice. So they have to do their best to shield us from it when we're kids, in order to give us the few short years of our lives when we can actually be happy.

I've been thinking a lot lately about the course of history, and where humanity is going. The United States is fucked, obviously. I am utterly convinced of this, and I will debate you until my ears bleed. America have no future other than stagnation and ignorance. Yesterday I ran across a five-painting series from the 19th century called The Course of Empire. The paintings depict the founding, rise, apex, downfall, and desolation of a fictional empire. The reason why empires always do this, I think, is that humans have this tendency to gather in large groups. We are apes, we're tribal, and I really don't think we're capable of building up empires that are supposed to include millions of people in it. People are too different. I'm starting to think the Articles of Confederation had it right -- a model similar to ancient Greece, made up of different city-states. But then you also got the whole "Peloponnesian War" thing. I don't know. Humanity is overrated, and we've never known what the hell we're doing.