> I think the cultural and political provincialism of the US Empire tends to
> generate a strange kind of solipsism, which either condemns America as the
> sum of all fears, or celebrates it as the acme of all hopes. But the Enemy
> is not a country or an imperial elite, but a mode of production.
>
> Europe is too rich, East Asia is too industrialized, and the developmental
> states are too well organized to ever let the US play top dog ever again.
> As a practical matter, the neolib restoration needs to borrow at least $3
> trillion from foreign creditors to restore solvency to the US economy.
>
> The Ring has melted, and $auron is no more. Now comes the uprising against
> the Sarumans of the neoliberal era...
>
> -- DRR
==============
Uh, it's 2009; aren't there other Tolkien tales you can tap for your geopolitcal vocabulary? :-)