Discuss: Bye, Bye, Miss American Empire

Wow, this was full of anything but real information. I have read a breif part and I am surprised anyone can write about “Seperation” when they clearly contributors to this epidemic. I understand our nation has made mistakes, but every nation does and will again. This is not a sign of the falling from grace that seems to be outlined here it seems to me that that is human nature, we learn from a mistake and then repeat that same mistake later. Is this learning to grow by taking on a challenge previouslt lost or simply a lack of focus while moving forward Im not sure. But I would love to see any facts you have regaurding the split of california into three states other than a singer that predicts it would be nice. Any elected officials speak on this matter of even suggest it? I apologize if I stopped reading and am misunderstanding this whole article and I indeed hope that is the case.

Sorry, I see many errors in spelling and that can be disracting when reading. As you can tell I type fast and submit even faster :)

I have just recently reread Kauffman’s article.  Personally,
I found it both intriguing and hopeful that the “secessionist”
movement is still alive.  Not because of its alliance with the old South to keep slavey going….but because the
federal government is a behemoth
stewing away in the juices of its
own reckless and imperial doings.
  But I like the idea of “secession” for another reason. We are now heading to “Going Local” thru the economic mess Bush left us.  To make it thru the hard times.local communities are going to have take care of their own.
I have hopes that after some years
of that, Democracy can emerge in
a real Re/Naissance.  I believe that the 300 million citizens we now have are simply too many for a
real democracy…we have become the behemoth with a federal head. 
  Real Democracy is
organic and flourishes in the soil of citizen participation.This could be a positive outcome of hard times.
  I really like Spencer Beebe’s
“Salmon Nation” concept.  If we fit ourselves locally into a particular
environment whose “borders” are defined by the species of plants and animals who live there… that is an organic way to live.  Then that is our home. “Salmon Nation”
can merge into “Bear” nation; into
Condor “nation” into “Gila” nation, etc. Certainly, indigenous peoples have long led the way in how the two-leggeds are interdependent with their environment.
  It is possible that this “Returning Home” strategy could unfold naturally…fueled by a failed economy.  If so, then there will be de facto local governance.
It is possible that Natural regions
could replace state borders(in fact, many rivers and other topography have formed state borders), and it could evolve, naturally, into a Confederation
of United Regions with more local control than Federal.  We would not have to feed(humans) and funds into a war machine.  And the Constitution could actually “rule”
and be used when local powers get heavy-handed.

  As the Boy King has just flown away to nevernever land, let’s see what Obama brings.  If he really follows thru on his galvanizing citizen participation…then maybe things will change within the “nation” construct. 
  Georgeann Johnson

No secession allowed without a bloodbath! That is the legacy of our 200-year-old secular saint, Abraham Lincoln. If the South had been allowed to separate or had won the Civil War, the power of the nascent American empire would have been greatly reduced, both then and into the future. Imagine the ramifications: The US half as powerful would have been half as evil as an Empire. One’s evaluation of President Lincoln’s greatness is intrinsically related to one’s opinion of the value to the rest of the world of the current United States. If you think the emergence of this hegemonic superpower has been a wonderful thing for mankind, as our national mythology holds, then you probably think old Abe was a pretty wonderful guy for saving the Union, even given the incredible cost in blood. But conversely, if you believe that the USA has been an “evil empire” bent on world domination, then Lincoln becomes the enabler of a catastrophic historical occurrence, whether he intended this outcome or not. Such a take on the Great Emancipator is a provocative and under-explored part of his legacy. Even anti-Lincoln biographies that attack him as being a tyrant do not embrace this view of the man, probably because the Lost Cause authors who penned them, whatever their libertarian or even racist beliefs, still at their core believe in the greatness of the United States. Without the Civil War, slavery would have ended in the South before the end of the 19th Century, as it did in every other part of the hemisphere. But only a coercive Civil War that made joining the Union like joining the mafia–no quitting allowed!–permitted our Thirteen Colonies’ decentralized experiment in democracy to morph into a world empire.

Greetings & reverence to our neighbors to the east.

Vermont is not the only piece of the empire that needs freedom.  There is a growing Cascadia bioregional secessionist movement as well.  Speaking as a Cascadian, we support Vermonts desire for independence, and self-governance.  Only through re-localization, of both economies, and power, will we find that we are too diverse to be headed up by a small few, so far away.

Human treasures like Thomas Berry and Arne Naess have recently vanished from our midst. All the while, thieves of the highest order fill their pockets with filthy lucre and ravage the Earth Arne Naess and Thomas Berry have valiantly toiled to protect and preserve.

Some greater wisdom will have to explain why the self-proclaimed Masters of the Universe among us are permitted to extirpate biodiversity, relentlessly degrade the environment, recklessly dissipate Earth’s resources, duplicitously endanger the children and ultimately threaten the very existence of coming generations. And for what purposes? Pin-striped suits, a fleet of cars, a chauffeur, a private jet, a yacht, at least one McMansion, distant hideaways and exclusive clubs…... all “signatures” of success in a culture promoted by the presumptive goodness of greed?

Consider for a moment what perversity the greedy among us have wrought.

What are we, at the behest of these avaricious leaders, doing? What is likely to become of our children and coming generations?

Our children’s future is currently being mortgaged and coming generations’ very existence put at risk by leaders in my not-so-great generation of elders. Is there no end to the arrogance and adamant avarice of these shameless little kings of wealth accumulation and concentration?

Somehow the adult members of the family of humanity and our children have got to find more effective ways of communicating about threats to human wellbeing and environmental health that are being perpetrated before our eyes by the self-proclaimed Masters of the Universe.

Good and able people are not saying loudly, clearly and often enough what they know to be true….not speaking truth to power.

Many too many bought-and-paid-for politicians are posing for the public and pandering to those with great wealth. Too many economic powerbrokers are engineering dodgy financial instruments and pyramid schemes, skimming millions for themselves and threatening the real global economy. And what do talking heads in the mass media do? Turn deaf ears and blinkered eyes to the entire mess.

Such woefully inadequate leadership needs to be named, shamed and replaced, I suppose.

Perhaps more people will stand up, remain standing, and speak out loudly, clearly and often about what they see and know to be happening in our time.

Otherwise, our children could soon be confronted with a colossal ecological wreckage of an unimaginable kind because so many people are not reasonably, sensibly and responsibly communicating openly and honestly with one another now. Because of our silence, the chances for taking the measure of certain ominously looming ecological challenges and finding adequate solutions to them appear to be diminishing day by day.

Perhaps some questions are worthy of consideration by young people and adults in the human family.

Is it possible that the wondrous planetary home we inhabit was given unto the stewardship of humankind simply for the purpose of allowing the greediest people on the planet to fulfill their unbridled wishes and insatiable desires… come what may for their own children, coming generations, billions of less fortunate people in the family of humanity, global biodiversity, Earth’s body and environment? Are the greedy kings of conspicuous consumption and excessive hoarding and their pocketed politicians, who devour and confiscate a lion’s share of the world’s wealth, the only people who matter? Are the most selfish among us, the ones who are being bailed out and who risk nothing by their avaricious behavior, supposed to be source of our primary concern?

Is it not yet crystal clear how a few people have stolen so much from so many others?

Not ever in the course of human history have so few humans so greedily commandeered, consumed or hoarded so much wealth that rightfully could be shared with so many less fortunate people.

Clearly, evidently, the colossal global economy is an ever-expanding, artificially designed, manmade construction. For what does the world’s human economy exist: to fulfill the insatiable desires of those with ill-gotten gains; to provide profane satisfactions for the greediest among us?

And, of all things, many too many leaders among our leading elders choose to extoll the virtues of their unbridled avariciousness and applaud each other by passing out awards and bonuses to one another in recognition of the triumph of their greed. All of this is plainly outrageous.

In light of what is occurring in the both the collapsing financial system and the cratering real global economy, can someone please explain what the terms “fairness” and “equity” mean? Can anyone find examples of these phenomena in the distribution of wealth of the world’s human economy today?

Who knows, perhaps necessary change toward common sense, fair play, self-limiting behavior and values of Thomas Berry and Arne Naess is in the offing.

Any secession movement is only as valid as the ability of the secessionists in question to overcome the existing power structure.