The United States is an empire

[Wild Cobra]

i've had to layoff 32 people in the last 11 weeks, so i've seen it.

Excuse my surprise, but with the pattern and content of your posts, I refuse to believe you are in any type of management of executive position!

[PixelPusher]

Excuse my surprise, but with the pattern and content of your posts, I refuse to believe you are in any type of management of executive position!

^


That is ing hilarious. The insulation of your right wing radio cocoon has no equal.

[clambake]

Excuse my surprise, but with the pattern and content of your posts, I refuse to believe you are in any type of management of executive position!

i'm an owner, and i wish you had worked for me.

then i would have been disappointed only 31 times.

[LnGrrrR]

i'm an owner, and i wish you had worked for me.

then i would have been disappointed only 31 times.

Oh... SNAP!

[Wild Cobra]

i'm an owner, and i wish you had worked for me.

then i would have been disappointed only 31 times.

Well, you would be lucky to have an employee like me. I would probably never take a job from you anyway. What type of business? I'm an automation equipment technician. Very similar to a millwright, but far more technical knowledge is needed.

[clambake]

why don't you stop by and work on my washing machine?

[Wild Cobra]

why don't you stop by and work on my washing machine?

Too simple. Why would I want to anyway? Besides, you're not in the Portland, OR metro area. Right?

[clambake]

you too good to work on washing machines?

[Wild Cobra]

you too good to work on washing machines?

I've repaired them before. Why would I want to work on yours? My free time is valuable. You going to pay me $200 per hour for taking away my free time?

[clambake]

it takes you an hour to fix a washing machine?

i don't think anyone needs an employee to milk the clock.

[BradLohaus]

I wonder if it has been an accident that the term "states' rights" has come to be translated as "slavery wasn't THAT bad."

You think that the Feds have too much control? You think the states should have more power!? That's what the slave owners said! I took a political science class!

[DarkReign]

i'm an owner, and i wish you had worked for me.

then i would have been disappointed only 31 times.

Ha...niiiice.

[Blake]

"in historical terms, an empire has nothing but global connotations to it."

In which historical terms, exactly? Until the colonial era, empires were regional, with the exception of the Mongols.

Oh, and the Ottomans. The caliphate was seriously huge up until WWI. Read about it and think about how that might affect a Muslim's view of the world. OK, separate topic.

In your op, you throw this out there:

The idea that the people run the government is quaint. If we actually ran the government, we would be throwing both the financiers and those who help themselves to our taxes under the au es of "bailing them out" into prison, or, were we not so "civilized," just stringing them up in the gallows or shooting them in the back of the head.

No, instead we are a cowed and coerced people, content with the bread and circuses that in just a few years' time will have gone from sacrosanct en lement to fading memory. We are the subjects of our imperial masters.

'Global' was probably not a great word to use, but when I think 'empire', I think of one base country moving into and taking over another, whether by force or not. I don't see 'empire' as being a form of government as you seem to be suggesting.

But...since there have been many different types of empires, I'm thinking the definition is varied, so if you put out what your definition of 'empire' is then I'll give you a better yes or no answer whether the US is an empire.

[BradLohaus]

Historically, an empire is a far-flung, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual state with highly centralized authority, run by a single authoritarian ruler, or by a small political class. In terms of modern-day America, this model seems to fit more than any other. The idea that the people run the government is quaint. If we actually ran the government, we would be throwing both the financiers and those who help themselves to our taxes under the au es of "bailing them out" into prison, or, were we not so "civilized," just stringing them up in the gallows or shooting them in the back of the head.

No, instead we are a cowed and coerced people, content with the bread and circuses...

It really can't be put any better than that in one paragraph. Nobody ever talks about the US as an empire within itself. That really is a helpful way to look at it.

Anybody want to attempt to assign a birth date to the US empire? When did we first meet all the requirements?

[Winehole23]

Anybody want to attempt to assign a birth date to the US empire? When did we first meet all the requirements?

WH23, PFA.



First two decades of the 20th century?

TR gave modern America it's first taste of activist government. Income taxes superceded US Customs as a funding source. Liberal wars for humanitarian causes abroad became seriously the style. Mass production of mass culture had just begun in earnest.

The dumbening was just barely underway; the US was a rising power.

[Winehole23]

Excuse my surprise, but with the pattern and content of your posts, I refuse to believe you are in any type of management of executive position!

After a long rout of abusive, disorderly posts, WC gets Pecksniffian on clambake.

Another timeless classic.

[Winehole23]

Well, you would be lucky to have an employee like me. I would probably never take a job from you anyway. What type of business? I'm an automation equipment technician. Very similar to a millwright, but far more technical knowledge is needed.

OTOH, I commend you for the courage of your confiding spirit of disclosure.

You didn't have to share -- it might have been wise not to -- but just the same, count me suitably impressed.

[Wild Cobra]

it takes you an hour to fix a washing machine?

i don't think anyone needs an employee to milk the clock.

See, remarks like that are why I believe you are too stupid to have employees to lay off.

$200 per hour... does not mean it takes an hour! It might take five minutes, it might take three hours or more depending on the problem and parts needed.

$200 x 5 min = less than $20. Of course, like any good business there would be a minimum charge. After all, what would my travel time be, hypothetically, if you lived in this area rather than California? Think I'm going to waste say a 45 minute round trip travel time for free?

[boutons_]

Crime rate is directly related to poverty rate.

Crime rate is directly related to wealth (the finanical sector, corp chiefs, D.C., politicians at all levels) but that crime all right with right-wingers.

It's the poor criminals they wanna beat up on while keeping them in poverty (also keeps the commercial prison corps raking in the $Bs in tax dollars, another way corps us over)

[clambake]

See, remarks like that are why I believe you are too stupid to have employees to lay off.

i have major perception skills, too.

does this sound familiar?

them: "hey jackass, i thought you said it was fixed?"

wild cobra: " i would like to be referred to as technician."

[Extra Stout]

"'Global' was probably not a great word to use, but when I think 'empire', I think of one base country moving into and taking over another, whether by force or not."

Manifest Destiny.

[2centsworth]

i gotta tell you clambake, for an owner, you are very childish. I talk to business owners all the time and I have never met one as silly as you, but of course i don't live in Dallas.

[RobinsontoDuncan]

I agree with your assertion that the United States is not a nation state (and has an imperial construction) but i don't believe we are slaves to anyone.

http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=111690

The United States has historically sought integration over marginalization (with the obvious caveat that some groups are integrated much faster than others) and litigation over violence. The fact that Americans have never experienced an organized and systematic terrorist campaign is primarily a product of the construction of American national iden y and the way marginalized groups seek empowerment in American society.

The precise definition of a “nation” is the geographical area that encompasses an ethnic or cultural population. The United States does not have a monolithic ethnicity, and American nationalism is better understood as glorified statism. The cult of the enlightenment that our founding fathers developed between 1776 and 1789 is the ideological bond that informs the American conception of national iden y, and this overarching ideology has manifested itself in the cons utionalism we know today. This unique brand of nationalism has created a culture in which state validation has far more psychological power than cultural validation, and it is the reason why ethnic, class, and social minorities have sought governmental recognition instead of societal recognition. This trend is exemplified by the civil rights movement, the feminist movement, and in contemporary society, the gay rights movement.

In most other societies, where national iden ies have no overarching connection with the framework of the state itself, marginalized groups are more likely to challenge the state or dominant cultural norms violently. This is because a society that lacks ins utions like the Supreme Court or the Cons ution, ins utions that all segments of society are ideologically connected to, has more trouble producing centralized normative statements that effect genuine shifts in cultural at udes.

[Blake]

Manifest Destiny.

not sure what that has to do with the American people stringing up financiers at the gallows, but in that sense, ok, I see the US as an empire.

[Blake]

This unique brand of nationalism has created a culture in which state validation has far more psychological power than cultural validation, and it is the reason why ethnic, class, and social minorities have sought governmental recognition instead of societal recognition. This trend is exemplified by the civil rights movement, the feminist movement, and in contemporary society, the gay rights movement.

it is a minor reason.......not "the" reason.