THE WANDERER; May 15, 2003

JOSEPH SOBRAN'S
WASHINGTON WATCH

The Empire and Its Denizens

     Power seems to have a life of its own. At every 
level, from the local social club to global politics, it 
seems to have a tendency to consolidate. There are people 
who are interested in it, love it, and seek it; most 
people ignore it and remain naive about it. Naturally, 
the former nearly always rule the latter.

     Our Lord tells us to be "wise as serpents, harmless 
as doves." As C.S. Lewis observes, it is easy to forget 
the first part of this counsel. We need to be wary of 
power without coveting it. Our Lord, seeing through the 
Pharisees but never emulating them, is our example.

     What is the pattern of power in our time? With the 
end (or temporary cessation) of the new war in the 
Mideast, I believe we can begin to see a broad outline.

     I have often written about the baneful trend toward 
the centralization of power within the United States, 
where the federal government has acquired an effective 
monopoly of power since the Civil War, such that it can 
now declare abortion a "right" which no state may 
abridge. A similar and possibly even more dangerous trend 
has been occurring globally for many years.

     In 1946 James Burnham published THE STRUGGLE FOR THE 
WORLD, in which he contended, against all received 
opinion at the time, that a third world war was likely to 
begin soon -- within five or ten years, he predicted. The 
atomic bomb had accelerated the pace of history. Like 
many of Burnham's predictions, this was carefully 
reasoned but wrong, yet not absurdly wrong. One of his 
most arresting predictions -- not a prophecy, but an 
analysis -- was that the struggle must end with either a 
Soviet or an American global empire.

     The U.S. and the Soviet Union were deadly enemies, 
and the Cold War several times came close to a nuclear 
showdown. As it was, there were very hot wars in Korea 
and Vietnam. The Cold War finally ended with the collapse 
of Soviet Communism in 1991, though it had been virtually 
finished by 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell.

     In hindsight, I think we can see most of the 20th 
century, from 1914 to 1989, as a single "Great War." That 
was what World War I was called until World War II 
usurped the title; as a French general remarked at the 
armistice, this was not a real peace but a 20-year truce. 
But what began as a European war centering on Germany 
became indeed a "struggle for the world" when World War 
II ended with another false peace. And in 1989 the United 
States finally emerged as the victor, enjoying global 
hegemony.

     Only a few Americans have clearly understood that 
contrary to our sentimental illusions, the old federated 
constitutional republic has become not only a single 
consolidated state, but an empire as well. Today the 
president has ceased to be a mere executive, subordinate 
to the legislative branch, and has become an elective 
emperor, a temporary Caesar.

     This change is hard for Americans to see, because it 
goes against our cherished national myths and has no 
close historical precedent. But foreigners may see it 
more clearly than we do. To American ears, the phrase 
"American imperialism" still sounds like leftist jargon. 
But it is more accurate than our slogans of democracy.

     In my view, we are now in a new phase of history. 
The "Great War," the struggle for the world, has ended in 
empire. Now the empire has entered a series of smaller 
wars to consolidate its power. "Operation Iraqi Freedom" 
(which began as "Operation Infinite Justice") was one of 
those wars.

     War is only one of the means of global control. 
Money, trade, credit, propaganda, punitive sanctions, and 
international agencies (under U.S. domination) are 
others. The Wilsonian fiction of "self-determination" is 
still honored verbally, but in fact the U.S. claims the 
authority to decide the internal arrangements of other 
states. Iraq, for example, must be "democratic" in some 
sense, but it must not elect Baathist or Islamicist 
rulers. Iraqis, in other words, may hold popular 
elections, but only within a "constitution" dictated by 
the U.S.

     This has naturally produced a hostile reaction 
around the world. Mass demonstrations and riots against 
"globalization," terrorist acts, and the huge recent 
antiwar movement are some of the signs of the times. 
Foreign governments, traditional allies and enemies alike 
-- France, Germany, Russia, China, and North Korea, among 
others -- have also made their displeasure known. The 
entire Muslim world hates the U.S.; Islam, not just 
"radical Islamism," is basically incompatible with the 
American Empire and Muslims know it. So is Christianity, 
though most Christians haven't yet realized it.

     Militarily, the empire appears more than invincible. 
Al-Qaeda made a brief and spectacular impression, but 
seems to have shot its wad, after giving the empire an 
excuse for new controls on its American population. Any 
new challenge will probably come from China, but not for 
a few years at least.

     And yet America doesn't think of itself as an 
empire. Even its rulers still seem to believe this 
remains "the land of the free." It makes its conquests in 
the name of democracy, freedom, liberation, and human 
rights. But it is easily angered by expressions of 
insubordination, as the French have just learned. 
Secession from the empire, like secession from the U.S., 
is forbidden.

     One of the oddities of this empire is that it has no 
formal doctrine. It refuses to call its acquisitions 
conquests or to repudiate the U.S. Constitution, which 
has become a dead letter. Yet its mentality is imperial, 
as the popular outrage against France illustrates. How 
dare these satellites act like sovereign states!

     Can this empire last? Nobody knows. Its currency and 
economy are shaky; everything could collapse suddenly, 
though it probably won't. Bill Clinton took the role of 
temporary emperor lightly; George W. Bush, egged on by 
advisers, takes it seriously; a new emperor could be 
elected next year, and might well avoid Bush's heavy-
handed approach to the satellites. American power will 
remain for the time being, but how it will be wielded is 
another matter.

     At any rate, the old America -- the America of hard 
work and sound money, of thrift and piety, of small 
property and free markets, of individual freedom and 
responsibility, of limited government and dispersed power 
-- is gone.

     The kind of people who made the old America hardly 
exist anymore. Their descendants might as well belong to 
another species; anyway, they will soon be outnumbered by 
aliens and "minorities." Few women now would even think 
of having large families.

     Americans neither remember the old America nor 
comprehend the new one, which defies comprehension. What 
is an "American" these days? Someone who has filled out 
the proper forms? One out of hundreds of millions of 
disinherited people, who have nothing in common but a 
government that supplies them with depreciating paper 
currency? A mere digit of the empire, I suppose.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Read this column on-line at 
"http://www.sobran.com/wanderer/w2003/w030515.shtml".

Copyright (c) 2003 by THE WANDERER, 
www.thewandererpress.com. Reprinted with permission.

This column may not be published in print or Internet 
publications without express permission of THE WANDERER. 
You may forward it to interested individuals if you use 
this entire page, including the following disclaimer:

"THE WANDERER is available by subscription. Write
subscription@thewandererpress.com for information.
Subscription price: $50 per year; $30 for six months.
Checks can be sent to The WANDERER, 201 Ohio Street, 
Dept. JS, St. Paul, MN 55107.


"SOBRAN'S and Joe Sobran's syndicated columns are 
available by e-mail subscription. For details and 
samples, see http://www.sobran.com/e-mail.shtml, write 
fran@griffnews.com, or call 800-513-5053."