The Cold Civil War
In Maclean's, Mark Steyn wonders if America is engaged in a "Cold Civil War" - that is to say, a civil war without direct confrontation. I've been wondering the same thing for some time.
Indeed, I've been asking a simple question without getting a good answer: what if 2008 ends up being like 2000? What are the chances that it would result in blood being spilled? I would guess that they're pretty high - certian elements of the left are growing daily more violent and more distanced from reality.
I think that there's another - partially hopeful, partially gloomy - analogy to describe the present situation. While we hear a lot of loose talk about "the fall of the American Empire" a la the fall of Rome - I think that the United States today is far closer to the Roman Republic at the end of its life than it is to the Roman Empire. Niall Ferguson likes to call the United States an "empire in denial." I think that's actually very apt.
Like Rome, circa the first century BC, the institutions of the Republic have been corrupted by a toxic brew of extreme personal ambition and misguided populism. Few, deep down, have confidence in their ability to fairly and correctly settle the problems of the day. Similarly, like Rome, the United States posesses great latent power which it is unable to effectively use because of the failure of its political institutions.
I'd note, in the interest of full disclosure, that this argument - to some extent - is raised in Orson Scott Card's novel "Empire" without really taking a position for or against or going into detail.
Indeed, I've been asking a simple question without getting a good answer: what if 2008 ends up being like 2000? What are the chances that it would result in blood being spilled? I would guess that they're pretty high - certian elements of the left are growing daily more violent and more distanced from reality.
I think that there's another - partially hopeful, partially gloomy - analogy to describe the present situation. While we hear a lot of loose talk about "the fall of the American Empire" a la the fall of Rome - I think that the United States today is far closer to the Roman Republic at the end of its life than it is to the Roman Empire. Niall Ferguson likes to call the United States an "empire in denial." I think that's actually very apt.
Like Rome, circa the first century BC, the institutions of the Republic have been corrupted by a toxic brew of extreme personal ambition and misguided populism. Few, deep down, have confidence in their ability to fairly and correctly settle the problems of the day. Similarly, like Rome, the United States posesses great latent power which it is unable to effectively use because of the failure of its political institutions.
I'd note, in the interest of full disclosure, that this argument - to some extent - is raised in Orson Scott Card's novel "Empire" without really taking a position for or against or going into detail.
posted by Adam Yoshida at
11:24 PM
2 Comments:
"[C]ertian elements of the left are growing daily more violent and more distanced from reality."
Really?
Wow, I had no idea.
The last I'd heard, it was right-wingers calling for the public hanging of Graeme Frost and his family. It was right-wingers sending death threats to them.
But I guess that doesn't count as "violent", since they had it coming to them, right?
There is some truth in what Mark Steyn says, but only a little. Mark Steyn is a neo-con who has gotten almost everything wrong in the past few years.
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