[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Skybird

I think you are wrong there, at least regarding the US. Some Eurpopeans may have had a more realistic view on Russia at times, but in Washington, encircling Russia, strangling it, pushing it further and further into the corner and finally making it disappear by regime change, is an obsession, and has never been given up since the wall fell - never. Americans have pushing Russia it in their genes, so to speak, like mocking French "cowardice", and an obsessive attitude regarding private firearms.

I dunno, I think deep in the core of the American political heart, the civil servant territory there exists a more rational hivemind. America wouldn't have gotten to where it is today through pure luck and bravado after all.
It's a bit like Little Kim and his Dad, knowing exactly how far to push the opponent and get what you can out of the deal. Of course, the Kim dynasty has a lot less resources to work with in that regard, but all diplomacy is the same at the end of the day.

And from a historians' perspective, it also is not surprising. America has a selfunderstanding of being a global hegemon, the standard and exmaple to whichh all other countries in the world have to follow - so they think. This attitude it shares with almost any empire there ever has been. Its part of the imperial culture. This also means to crack down on every possible, potential challenger whenever it can - this also has been something that every empire ever has done against others.

I think that bubble is bursting, slowly, but bursting nonetheless...whether it's just because there's a Democrat President, but the old 'Go get 'em cowboy' attitude of the early 2000s has definitely disappeared. I think also getting stuck in the 'Graveyard of Empires' probably did a lot to bruise the self-image of the US.
I just hope that if this is the decline of America as the de jure superpower that it takes place relatively peacefully, but unfortunately it's rare that this happens. The UK lost ours after two world wars, France after the Napoleonic wars, the Spanish after Napoleon thrashed them, and so on.
Fortunately for us, these wars (except the last) were absent of nuclear weapons...a war between major powers now would not be a desirable outcome, so I hope that any decline can be done peacefully, or if not peacefully then with as few casualties as possible.

And if there will rise another empire after America declined, I tell you that that empire will act exactly the same way, and merciless crack down on everybody, by all means promising success, who could put a risk to the new empire's claim for the global pole-position.

Reminds me of that song by Tears for Fears 'Everybody wants to rule the world', but yes, every empire or major power will want to maximise its success by controlling or undercutting its rivals. It's almost Darwinian in its simplicity.

Even empires that once have been but are no more, find it difficult to let go that habitus. Britain struggled for long time that it had lost its global empirial status. France dreams of shadows of past glory until today. Russia wants to boast as if it still were the Soviet Union's military block.

Oh, we still struggle, believe me. If we didn't have a strong nostalgia for times past then people like Nigel Farage would not be able to exploit it along with a good dose of scaremongering in order to gain votes...which reminds me, him and Russell Brand are on Question Time on the BBC tonight...should be good for a chuckle.

Empires are the born egoists. Not even babies are that bad in that regard.

Mankind is a very egotistical creation, you only have to look at some of the beautiful monuments to our own vanity we have created in history, and an empire is perhaps a concentrated dosage of mankinds ego, fear, pride and anger all wrapped up with a thin red line.