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Entry: America: An Empire? Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/america_an_empire#12830 Post contents: Reading this stream sharpens a strain of thought I've been chewing on of late...namely, the existence of two distinct realities in this current era of American Dystopia. There is the so called Popular culture, a madhouse funfest of disreputable activity.....a sustained alley fight in essence and the other reality that is far more important but unfortunately commandeered by the popular culture: our individual lives in contact with other individuals. This is the distinction we should all be focusing upon because it is a route out of the mess we've assiduously created by abandoning all but the most narcissistic aspects of individualism. Healthy individualism still exists in America, the individualism that respects the commonweal and if we return our gaze to it, we might recover from this feckless immersion in Crusading Empire. Capitalism....the mano a mano version of it, the trans-lingual language of transaction that places a complex array of individual realities into a forum of mutual benefit is a powerful tool in empowering the individual and sustaining the conversation that once made this Republic the envy of the world. The idea of America is what has stunned the world. Empire building distracts this intellectual construct, diverting it's attentions to the tribalistic territorialism that may have jump-started the species into advancement but bedevils it on a crowded planet. All of us possess several circles of friendship and contact. Some within it are assholes, some tolerable and some positively beloved. Subtract the noise of the popular culture from them and these relationships reveal the truer meaning of America.....an America that still exists and will always exist because it is not a place as much as it is an idea. Religion is a wonderful forum for this but at present, Religion is bogged down in the Rollerderby of popular discontent and fear. Religion is gunning the accelerator and steering by the rear view mirror. Lets get back to basics...to our individual relationships and the enrichment possible there. Centralization, Corporatization and a mania for the big and flashy has distracted us and obliterated a cultural memory that served us better when the Popular Culture did not medicate us to the degree it has. Small.......is bigger than we think. I may not love you but so what if we can come to a mutually beneficial state of transaction...verbal.... economic..... civic...whatever the case may be. Consumerism and it's Host, the Centralized Bureaucracy of a Government-Corporate Syndicate blocks this by breeding a class of spectators when what we need is actors. For us to return to the dynamic Republic we once had, labor must stop being considered a pejorative.....Marx, like all idealogues was only smart by half. Individual labor and trade will return the self respect the nation has been habituated to forsake. The technological juggernaut of Globalism has brought some amazing things but the psychology of the individual has not adapted apace, surrendering the will to "leaders" who neither lead nor care a whit about the individual. We have some work to do and it starts within the authentic circle of our acquaintances. Sent at: 2009 01 07