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THE DUMB-EMPIRE MODEL

How many fallen empires does it take to keep another one from following suit? Considering the world’s long history and our relatively short one, there appears to be plenty of room, yet, on that framework of former, stupid world-shaker governments After forming cohesive societies, they develop technologically and seek to expand. Therein lies the problem; apparently, that expansion is too heady to be controlled. Of course, that lack of control masks the fact that, while the empire in question is growing, its competitors are developing philosophical and technological defenses unimagined by the now-self-possessed, implacable dreadnaught.

All of these once-streamlined, indefatigable dominant world powers ultimately wind up in the trash-heap of history. Some merely run out of steam; others crash and burn.

·       The Macedonian Alexander, rejecting his Aristotelian teaching, spread Grecian gore throughout most of his known world.

·       Rome, the great octopus, fought the new religion and then embraced it.

·       Byzantium stole the new religion, upon which Constantine and his successors eventually choked.

·       After the Renaissance jolted Europe back to life, post the Dark Ages, England, France and Spain began to compete for dominance.

·       Altering all previous concepts about this planet, Columbus opened its other hemisphere to all comers.

·       The newly minted United States, having divested itself of its European past, began to chase everyone out of its continental backyard.

·       The crash-and-burners -- the Third Reich National Socialists and the Nipponese warlords – were too heavy-handed, brutal and over-extended.

·       The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, after much bluss and blunder, faded with little more than a whimper.

So, here we are, all alone – and what are we doing? We are engaged in internal, tragicomic infighting, while our outer edges are being gnawed by pesky varmints. We have become much too bloated to dispatch them with proper pesticide; instead, we are going after them with flame throwers – not noticing that this excess imperils us all.

Will we become just another passé example in that dumb-empire framework? Time will tell.