>
>There is considerable social unrest here just beneath the surface.A
serious
>crisis and the left will arise overnight given considerable
unemployment.
Of course there's social unrest, but the genius of the system is that it channels the anger at the wrong targets. Tim Mcveigh blew up a federal building, not General Motors HQ, and the elites used it as a way to institute more repression in the name of "antiterrorism".
>The Vietnam War was crazy from even the plunder stanpoint, and caused
>large scale economic and social unrest. It also dissillusioned an
entire
>generation
>myself among them depriving the governing elite of needed skills.
The ruling class achieved its objectives in Vietnam (independent nationalism was crushed) and was able to manage the rebellion at home (ending the draft, "Vietnamization") with only minor hiccups. When you compare the American Imperial system with England at its height or Rome, you find a much more flexible and effective system. It can deal with overambitious leaders (compare Watergate to the rise of Augustus), requires very little in the way of administrative expense at the periphery (compare to England, which was never able to properly plunder the Americas, or Rome, which spent untold amounts on infrastructure in the provinces)
Running an empire is a messy business, but then efficiacy isn't the goal - profit is. The American system is the last and greatest empire on earth, and underestimating it's staying power doesn't do the left any favors.
Jim Baird
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