tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740842577558997362.post5778107883063687386..comments2023-08-07T07:27:43.540-04:00Comments on Vox Michaeli: Non fui, fui, non sum, non curoelmo iscariothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710846725911318970noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740842577558997362.post-7320275803794041082011-04-28T10:42:53.333-04:002011-04-28T10:42:53.333-04:00It's always tough to know how much a speaker m...It's always tough to know how much a speaker means "empire" metaphorically. Let's just say that I think we're far, far to involved in extending our influence, policies, and bullets outside our borders. Trade is great. Diplomacy is great. Playing World Police while threatening trade sanctions against nations that don't ban marijuana? Call it a modern form of imperialism or don't; either way, "declining" away from it doesn't strike me as a terrible loss.elmo iscariothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14710846725911318970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740842577558997362.post-46979857970916804902011-04-28T09:30:39.015-04:002011-04-28T09:30:39.015-04:00If the US is an empire, where are the imperial pos...If the US is an empire, where are the imperial possessions? The subject peoples? The imperial tributes?<br /><br />Iraq and Afghanistan don't count - as far as I know we are not levying taxes or tribute on them.<br /><br />Neither do the various territories we obtained from Spain in the dying days of that empire; we gave one of them back to the occupants, and allow the rest to self-govern, more or less.<br /><br />I'm not saying there's no chance of a decline, though I don't think we're in one; just that if we are, it is not an imperial oneIan Argenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03704336044732061128noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8740842577558997362.post-29161123620080995302011-04-26T10:58:39.391-04:002011-04-26T10:58:39.391-04:00We have an empire? Since when? I want to go to t...We have an empire? Since when? I want to go to the far reaches and lord it over the colonials before they have a nasty rebellion and throw off our yoke. I can't beleive I missed out on this for so long. Which are the subject nations again?<br /><br />Seriously though, look at every former empire; Germany, Britain, Rome, France, Spain, Portugal. All broken, pale shells of themselves. The best of which are strugling to keep back the rising tide of their own destruction. Some like Spain and Portugal so wrecked by their fall even now, almost two hundred years later are cut rate third tier powers at best. Rome doen't even exist anymore. <br /><br />Think it can't happen here?Bryan Reavishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07775461442776693282noreply@blogger.com