the Imperial path

we are beyond reform of our existing institutions, this will become abundantly clear soon enough.

all social institutions must reflect the realities of their environment. as we have drawn down the planet's supply of hydrocarbons, easily accessible mineral stores, and most importantly top soil; we will be forced to adjust our social arrangement.

what will change?

everything will have to be scaled down and localised... unless we experience a jump in "complexity"

specifically this means that we will all have to get on the same page. more coordinated and centralized. living less individualy oriented, more collectively, much more efficiently, packed into mass transport systems, drastically reducing our collective "footprint."

any increase in complexity entails centralized coordination. for example, in our bodies the brain coordinates our organs. if the industrial project is going to continue, globally we need a "brain;" as it is we have many organs (nations/continents) with no acknowledged central power. the United Nations was an idealistic attempt to establish this function, but it never really became effective because of the Cold War jockeying of power. The UN never had any power to wield anyway, except the collective "voice of the nations."

Today the USA is making a bid to become the central power, the brain of the globe. will this work? what are the chances?

I cannot say if this will work, but it certainly will not work if we keep going on this same bumbling uncertain path.

Pardon the "realpolitik," but the only way to effectively establish control is through the dual forces of Power and Authority.

this is Imperial. The center must claim itself, its own sovereign "right to dominate" in the name of Authority; that is its own authority. the functions of Power and Authority are integrated in the Imperial Center. Just as the brain is vitally supported by the organs, the organs are organisationally supported by the brain. the Imperial Center administrates and coordinates the periphery while they vitaly support it.

can the USA do this? or can a group take control of the governing apparatus enough to make a go of it?

this is already happening. i do not think there is any "Imperial Plan" place, but we do currently have a group who has seized the reigns of power and understand its imperatives. Rome's republic became Imperial, responding to the very same types of stresses that we are experiencing.

I honestly don't know if these people have the stomach for it. Global war is the only way to establish Dominion, who wants this? not only does it involve scrapping over two-hundred years of American republican rhetoric but untold of suffering would be incurred, and exercised upon populations.

Morally this is a very tentative place.

My assumption is that we are on the cusp of massive die-off. This is due to the convergence of imminent energy shortages, followed by the cascading effects of reduction in food supplies, interruption of global and national transportation networks, and collapse of the debt burdened global capital situation.

Would a "visionary despot" view these circumstances in light of the centralizing imperative and make the decision that the risk is worth it?

The only way to avert this die-off would be to coordinate the entire global industrial system under one set of conditions and laws. How else could global warming, energy descent, internal conflict, and population growth be dealt with? Would a despot make the calculation that saving modern "civilisation" is worth the price of global conflagration?

Who knows...

My opinion is that a one world government would be extremely oppressive, unwieldy and very undesireable. This is not a situation that I want. But I must admit there are many paths into the future. In these volatile times all bets are off.