It wouldn’t be the first time in history that an empire’s fall was accelerated by a short sighted petty buffoon ascending to its throne. This is not a coincidence as empires in decline have a tendency to produce self-destructive leaders. They are a symptom of the underlying rot.
That being said, empires also have a certain amount of institutional inertia and can keep going for a while essentially on autopilot despite jarring leadership changes. In modern terms we recognize this as the deep state which will try at all costs to keep the neocon project going no matter which elected figurehead sits in the White House.
I would argue that opportunists taking helm is a direct outcome of the systemic pressures created by the early stages of the collapse. The dynamic is that people’s material conditions start to decline which in turn leads people to become disillusioned with the political establishment. This opens up opportunities for people on the political fringes to come in and pose as fresh alternatives not tainted by the establishment.
This is precisely the dynamic we saw play out during 2008 crisis that gave rise to the occupy movement on the left and maga on the right. A lot of people lost faith in the system, and started looking for solutions outside mainstream politics. Trump seized upon the moment promising to drain the swamp, and so on.
I agree that there is a lot of institutional inertia, and this is a big factor in ensuring the collapse continues progressing unabated. Halting and reversing current trends requires honestly acknowledging root causes of the problems in order to take corrective action. However, existing political climate precludes this from happening as was illustrated during 2020 election. Sanders proposed some sound and necessary policies such as The Green New Deal, public healthcare, and student debt forgiveness. Yet, even these necessary corrective measures were rejected by the establishment.
Since the effects of the collapse are not evenly distributed, the plight of the working class is largely invisible to the policy makers. This creates a lag between problems occurring and the leadership becoming aware of them. Thus things have to degrade quite significantly before people in power become convinced of the severity of the problems.
The further along collapse of the empire progresses the more difficult it becomes to arrest it. At the same time loss of trust in public institutions and the rise of opportunists ensures that tough measures that are necessary become increasingly impossible to take politically.
Agreed, they have been systematically increasing the surveillance state and police budgets nationwide, that is their solution to the problem, not to fix it, but to try and suppress the people harder.
I mean, they’re aware of it in an abstract way. They’re not aware of this in a sense that it’s an urgent problem that’s driving the collapse of their regime.
It wouldn’t be the first time in history that an empire’s fall was accelerated by a short sighted petty buffoon ascending to its throne. This is not a coincidence as empires in decline have a tendency to produce self-destructive leaders. They are a symptom of the underlying rot.
That being said, empires also have a certain amount of institutional inertia and can keep going for a while essentially on autopilot despite jarring leadership changes. In modern terms we recognize this as the deep state which will try at all costs to keep the neocon project going no matter which elected figurehead sits in the White House.
I would argue that opportunists taking helm is a direct outcome of the systemic pressures created by the early stages of the collapse. The dynamic is that people’s material conditions start to decline which in turn leads people to become disillusioned with the political establishment. This opens up opportunities for people on the political fringes to come in and pose as fresh alternatives not tainted by the establishment.
This is precisely the dynamic we saw play out during 2008 crisis that gave rise to the occupy movement on the left and maga on the right. A lot of people lost faith in the system, and started looking for solutions outside mainstream politics. Trump seized upon the moment promising to drain the swamp, and so on.
I agree that there is a lot of institutional inertia, and this is a big factor in ensuring the collapse continues progressing unabated. Halting and reversing current trends requires honestly acknowledging root causes of the problems in order to take corrective action. However, existing political climate precludes this from happening as was illustrated during 2020 election. Sanders proposed some sound and necessary policies such as The Green New Deal, public healthcare, and student debt forgiveness. Yet, even these necessary corrective measures were rejected by the establishment.
Since the effects of the collapse are not evenly distributed, the plight of the working class is largely invisible to the policy makers. This creates a lag between problems occurring and the leadership becoming aware of them. Thus things have to degrade quite significantly before people in power become convinced of the severity of the problems.
The further along collapse of the empire progresses the more difficult it becomes to arrest it. At the same time loss of trust in public institutions and the rise of opportunists ensures that tough measures that are necessary become increasingly impossible to take politically.
I don’t think they are unaware. I just think they don’t have a solution that is acceptable to them.
For example this is their economic policy https://twitter.com/SpeakerJohnson/status/1713961141800464837
Agreed, they have been systematically increasing the surveillance state and police budgets nationwide, that is their solution to the problem, not to fix it, but to try and suppress the people harder.
I mean, they’re aware of it in an abstract way. They’re not aware of this in a sense that it’s an urgent problem that’s driving the collapse of their regime.