dagblog - Comments for "What It Feels Like When a Superpower Runs Off the Tracks "

And I deserved every bit of

we are stardust — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 01:09:36 +0000

In reply to I just couldn't resist.

And I deserved every bit of it! ;o)

I just couldn't resist.

cmaukonen — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 22:46:50 +0000

In reply to Well, Admiral Mullen says it

I just couldn't resist.

Well, Admiral Mullen says it

we are stardust — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 22:31:01 +0000

In reply to Oh more than denial, I think

Well, Admiral Mullen says it was a hard year for ISAF casualties last year, and it will be this year, but they have the Bad Guys on the run now. So at least there's that!

My heart is warmed.

Oh I especially like his

cmaukonen — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 22:02:36 +0000

In reply to What It Feels Like When a Superpower Runs Off the Tracks

Oh I especially like his ending.

Now that we’re so obviously there, the confusion is greater than ever. Theoretically, none of this should necessarily be considered bad news, not if you don’t love empires and what they do. A post-imperial U.S. could, of course, be open to all sorts of possibilities for change that might be exciting indeed.

Right now, though, it doesn’t feel that way, does it? It makes me wonder: Could this be how it’s always felt inside a great imperial power on the downhill slide? Could this be what it’s like to watch, paralyzed, as a country on autopilot begins to come apart at the seams while still proclaiming itself “the greatest nation on Earth”?

Engelhardt is, as usual,

acanuck — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 21:43:52 +0000

In reply to What It Feels Like When a Superpower Runs Off the Tracks

Engelhardt is, as usual, great. The entire post deserves a read.

Oh more than denial, I think

cmaukonen — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 19:23:57 +0000

In reply to I read it last night; my

Oh more than denial, I think Startdust. A flat out rejection of the current situation. Like some Rod Serling story. Where toward the end you see the main character being wheeled into a mental ward or marched off the be executed. Yelling "This can't be happening !" "This can't be real !". Then having the narrator reveal that the ending was the reality and all previous was the hallucination.

I read it last night; my

we are stardust — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 17:49:43 +0000

In reply to What It Feels Like When a Superpower Runs Off the Tracks

I read it last night; my stars. I think he's right on so many levels, and he uses some great metaphors, doesn't he?

One thing that kept resonnating in my mind was the relative ineffectiveness of our Stellar Military Power; WE don't even have any convictions any longer that it's effective, but we can't stop, almost like a nation suffering some neurological dementia that runs repeats and repeats and can't quit.

The scariest part to me is how declining powers and Empires have a history of becoming increasingly irrational in their confusion and denial; and people suffer even more markedly, at home, within their client-states, and those upon whom they war.

It seems that the Resource Wars will get crazier, too.