Americans flaunt the so-called "democracy and freedom" of the Statue of Liberty
Introduction
I have always been puzzled by a question. It has been less than 250 years since the United States declared its founding in 1776. What does it rely on to unite all kinds of immigrants? It is not like China, which has the same blood heritage and five thousand years of cultural identity.
has only one answer, which is interest. It is the dividends of American hegemony that bring people of all ethnic groups together, not the so-called "democracy and freedom" they keep talking about.
As we all know, the United States has three major hegemonies: dollar (or financial) hegemony, military hegemony and technological hegemony, and dollar hegemony is the core and foundation. The United States uses dollars to collect the world's wool, which is a typical predatory economy. This is exactly the same as the Roman Empire two thousand years ago, because the Roman Empire was also a hegemonic country built on invasion and plunder.
Today, we look back on the past and predict the inevitable collapse of the United States by studying the rise and fall of the Roman Empire.
1. The Roman Empire in its heyday is so similar to the United States today!
Roman Empire, 27 BC ~ 1453 AD. After 395 AD, it was divided into: Western Roman Empire : 395 AD - 476 AD; Eastern Roman Empire : 395 AD - 1453 AD. It is a large empire centered on the Mediterranean and spanning three continents: Europe, Asia and Africa.
Roman Empire
Baths, theaters, and gladiatorial arenas. More than two thousand years ago, citizens of Rome enjoyed public facilities and welfare that were the envy of many modern countries.
Ancient Roman Baths
Ancient Roman Theater
Ancient Roman Arena
Even ordinary Roman citizens can live in low-rent housing provided by the government and the rich, and go to the square to receive free bread. During festivals, you can also watch free performances in theaters and arenas. The streets of Rome are dotted with public baths and gyms. They enjoy high government subsidies, so the tickets are very low, and the government regularly issues subsidies to citizens, so that ordinary Roman citizens still have the opportunity to enjoy these luxurious facilities.
With the status of a Roman citizen, he can enjoy the health, culture, entertainment and other public services of the city of Rome, and share the dividends brought by Rome's hegemony. Therefore, Roman citizens had an extraordinary sense of honor and identity for their identity and country.
As a hegemonic country that emerged from city-states, the military is naturally its foundation. The Romans carefully built their army in countless wars. The largest organic unit in the army was called the legion by the Romans.
The legion is given a fixed number and symbol to strengthen the soldiers' sense of belonging and identity. In addition, its moderate size and complete organizational structure allow the legion to operate independently or jointly.
During the Roman Republic period, only true Roman citizens were eligible to join the Roman legions , which was an honor and right.
The peak period of the Roman Legion was from the 1st century AD to the 2nd century AD. They were high-spirited, well-disciplined, well-equipped (daggers, javelins, shields, helmets, short-sleeved breastplates, etc.), invincible, and had explosive combat effectiveness. .
Roman legions with extremely high combat literacy
The Romans called themselves civilized people, and the surrounding peoples were uncivilized barbarians, and they plundered wealth from them as a matter of course. Every time the Roman legions conquered a place, they established a province there. The people of the provinces were not considered Roman citizens; their only value was to pay taxes to Rome.By squeezing and exploiting the people in the conquered areas, the Roman rulers made huge fortunes!
This is the hegemonic dividend system of ancient Rome . First of all, economically, high incomes were obtained through cruel external oppression and exploitation; part of the high incomes flowed into the pockets of the ruling class and nobles, and part was used to pay for the high welfare of Roman citizens; Roman citizens It also provided high-quality and highly loyal soldiers for the Roman army , and provided military support for the Roman Empire's continued foreign aggression and expansion!
History is always surprisingly similar! This model from ancient Rome still holds true in the United States today. First of all, economically, the United States "harvests" the world's wealth through a financial hegemony system centered on the US dollar. On the one hand, it provides high welfare for American citizens and maintains social stability and national identity. You must know that the United States accounts for 6% of the world's population. It consumes 35% of the world's resources; on the other hand, it maintains huge annual military expenditures. You must know that the United States has more than 300 overseas military bases in more than 140 countries and regions, and 13 aircraft carrier formations cruise around the world.
US aircraft carrier fleet
Logically speaking, this model can continue to operate forever, but why can’t the Roman Empire, which was once prosperous for a time, still be unable to escape the fate of destruction? It's because there's something wrong with one link, and that's the greedy nature of the ruling class and the aristocracy.
2. The fortress of the Roman Empire was breached from within, and so will the United States!
In the middle and late period of the Roman Empire, due to the insatiable greed of the upper echelons of the empire, the gap between the rich and the poor in the country was polarized, and there was quite a trend of "rich families smelled of wine and meat, and roads were frozen to death", which first seriously weakened the combat effectiveness of the imperial army.
When the Roman soldiers fought for the country through life and death, and even dragged their broken bodies back to their dreaming homes, they found that the land had long been sold to the nobles by their hungry families, and they had to flock to the city to find a living.
However, a more cruel fact lies ahead: The empire's years of aggression and expansion have brought a large number of slaves to the empire's ruling class and nobles. These free slaves have squeezed out the job opportunities of Roman citizens, and the empire's hegemony dividend has been completely occupied by the rulers. interception.
Ancient Roman Slave Market
As a result, the Roman legions that were originally "invincible and invincible" became disorganized and dispirited, and more and more Roman civilians were no longer willing to join the army and serve the country.
Some people may ask, is no one at the top aware of the empire's crisis? Yes, but unable to change. You must know that the power of the conservative faction headed by the Chinese Senate is deeply rooted, just as the Qing government's "Hundred Days Reform" was strangled in the hands of the conservative Cixi. Moreover, the wily Senate thought of a better way: to absorb foreigners who were not Roman citizens into the army, and to use a large number of mercenaries.
Although this solved the problem of insufficient soldiers and combat effectiveness, the newly formed Roman legions and mercenary legions were "de-Romanized". They had a very low sense of identity with the country and were loyal to the commander who gave them the ring. Not the country.
Although Rome prospered again with the strong fighting power of mercenaries, warlords soon became the most important political force in Rome, and military coups became a major problem that troubled the country, just like the feudal rule in the late Tang Dynasty in China. , the same as supporting troops and respecting oneself.
In 476 AD, the Roman mercenary leader German Odoacer deposed the then Western Roman Emperor Romulus Augustus and proclaimed himself king, marking the demise of the Western Roman Empire.
Odoacer, the Germanic barbarian leader in the movie
It can be said that it was the greed of the Roman rulers and "leading the wolf into the house" that dug their own graves!
When we look at the United States, we will find that similar problems have arisen in the current hegemonic dividend system of US imperialism. Since the 1970s, American capitalists have transferred a large number of manufacturing industries to developing countries with lower labor costs in order to obtain higher profits. But this has also resulted in the income of the middle and lower classes in the United States not increasing all year round. At the same time, the wealth of American billionaires continues to expand.
The United States is the Western country with the most severe polarization between rich and poor. The Institute for Policy Studies, an American think tank, reported that in the past 30 years, the overall wealth of American billionaires has increased 19 times, while the median wealth has only increased by 5.37%.
This reveals the cruel reality that "the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer" in the United States.
Federal Reserve data shows that as of June 2021, the wealth owned by the so-called "middle class" in the middle 60% of the United States' income has fallen to 26.6% of the country's total wealth, a 30-year low, while income The top 1% of rich people own 27% of the country’s wealth, surpassing the “middle class”.
The shocking gap between rich and poor is a social problem that has always existed in the United States, and the COVID-19 epidemic in the past two years has been like a catalyst, making this sick social reality in the United States more prominent.
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the U.S. government has implemented a "flood-in" economic stimulus policy, and the stock market has been singing all the way, but it has only made wealth more and more concentrated at the top of the "pyramid", causing billionaires' assets to rise sharply.
Currently, the richest 10% of people in the United States own 89% of U.S. stocks and funds, a record high. In sharp contrast is the surge in poverty, hunger, and homeless people. In 2020, there were more than 580,000 homeless people and more than 50 million hungry people in the United States.
The homeless man on the streets of the United States
This shows that the dividends of American hegemony flow too much to the big capitalists and have not been passed on to the people at the bottom. This scene is so similar to the large-scale annexation of land by the Roman aristocrats that led to the destitution of the people at the bottom! It can be said that the fundamental reason for the recent social unrest in the United States is the serious uneven distribution of wealth. Issues such as racial discrimination and the COVID-19 epidemic have only accelerated the outbreak of social conflicts.
If the "Black Lives Matter" movement is really about fighting for racial equality, it cannot explain why a political movement aimed at opposing racial discrimination has evolved into a "zero dollar purchase" with the theme of robbery.
"Zero Yuan Purchase" of Smashing, Smashing and Robbery
Today's United States needs a social change to allow the dividends of hegemony to better flow to the bottom of society. However, the big capitalists in the United States will, like the Roman Senate, make it difficult for reforms to proceed. Therefore, the US hegemonic order will inevitably decline.
3. In-depth analysis and prediction of the United States
Since from the perspective of historical materialism, the collapse of the United States is inevitable, then we might as well predict how the United States will decline.
From a military perspective, in modern society, the firepower of regular troops far exceeds that of ordinary people who are hastily armed, and a peasant uprising-style violent revolution is almost impossible to occur.
The United States adopts a recruitment system. Most ordinary soldiers come from the lower classes of society and sign service contracts for 2 to 3 years. The time is too short and there is basically no room for promotion. So where do the commanders of the US military come from? From professional military academies such as West Point , Army War College, Naval War College, Air Force Academy and Marine Corps University. The admissions threshold for these schools is very high, and applicants must have sufficient recommenders, such as members of Congress or active-duty generals. In this way, the American ruling class has firmly grasped the command of all levels of the military in its own hands. Without the organizational connection of officers, the possibility of a military riot relying solely on soldiers is extremely low.
West Point Military Academy Graduation Ceremony
In addition, the U.S. Department of Defense has jurisdiction over the Navy, Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and the U.S. Coast Guard, totaling approximately 1.38 million active-duty military personnel. What the state government can directly command is the National Guard, which totals about 440,000 people. The average of each state is less than 10,000 people. The comparison with the military strength of the federal government is too huge. Therefore, it is difficult to find potential resistance forces within the US military organization.
Therefore, the final problem should still be at the economic level, which exactly corresponds to the sentence: "The economic foundation of determines the superstructure ." Because the gap between rich and poor in the United States is polarized, there are also clear distinctions between rich areas and slum areas in American society.
In the United States, the places with the most wealthy people are on the east and west coasts, New York, Los Angeles and other areas with good geographical locations. Rich areas are generally in suburbs far away from the city. First of all, rich Americans are very particular about life. In the families of the rich, There will be a specialized nutritionist in the restaurant instead of going to some ordinary restaurants to eat. Secondly, the clothing of the rich is also very particular and must be tailored by a specialized clothing designer.
America's wealthy areas
The wealthy in the United States have private doctors for medical treatment. They do not go to the hospital to see a doctor at all. Their houses and cars are very luxurious. Basically, a very large villa or a small island is their own private property. , there are private luxury yachts on the sea, and dozens of luxury cars on the ground.
The crime rate in the slums is high and security is poor. Crime occurs here all the time. The poor live in the city, a mixed crowd, including those who drive illegal cars, sell fake goods, etc. They live a difficult life every day, working hard every day just to earn enough money to eat, and their living and sanitary conditions are very poor. Because the environment is dirty and messy, it can also lead to the breeding of various infectious diseases. Children who grow up in this environment, without positive guidance and formal education from their parents, will smoke, drink, fight and steal from an early age.
American ghettos
In major cities in the United States, dilapidated black communities are areas where even the police dare not set foot easily. These communities were called "nigger towns" by whites. The people living here have broken away from the mainstream social order and make a living by engaging in illegal activities such as robbery and drug trafficking. If the government organizes a large-scale manhunt, they break up into pieces and evade capture. Even if you are unfortunately arrested, the life in prison may be better than the life outside.
When the government uses the police or the military to maintain order, it requires high governance costs. Once state power leaves, communities fall back into their control. After the Black Lives Matter movement broke out, zero-dollar shopping provided them with new ideas for getting rich. In the name of seeking justice for black people, they brazenly broke into stores and supermarkets to loot goods. The cost of managing such low-intensity unrest is extremely high.
If the U.S. government is unable to prevent the increasingly serious inflation, the manufacturing industry will continue to flow out, and the gap between the rich and the poor will continue to widen. As more and more people become impoverished, more people will join in the turmoil. Since poor black people grab it, poor white people, Latinos and even Asians will naturally grab it too.
A rotten community will spread to the whole society like cancer , emitting toxins, affecting the operation of normal communities, and pushing up the operation and management costs of enterprises and governments. Until the U.S. government is unable to maintain the stable social environment required for capital regeneration, capital will accelerate its flight from the United States, affecting fiscal revenue. Once the United States is unable to support its huge military expenditures and its military power is weakened, the turning point for hegemony will arrive.
The United States is the largest debtor country, with a foreign debt of up to 27 trillion US dollars. When the United States was the world's most powerful country, no one was worried that he would not be able to get it, and even if he was worried, he would not dare to ask for it. Once U.S. hegemony is gone, U.S. creditors will suddenly realize why U.S. foreign debt does not require any collateral.
When Americans have to bear high tax burdens to repay the country's foreign debt, increasingly poor Americans will find that the supreme values they have flaunted have lost their charm.
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