By Kyle Francis
If you had the means to travel back in time and tell your average citizen of the Roman empire that the great power they live under is going to crumble from the inside out some day, they probably would have thought you insane and thrown you to the lions.
Time travel and lions aside, if you were to approach the average citizen of the United States of America today and tell them that the great power they live under is one day going to fall, they would more than likely think you insane, but you would probably be spared the gruesome death at the claws of feral cats.
Not as outrageous as you may think. During his lecture at the University of Calgary on October 14, the London-based independent journalist Gwynne Dyer spoke prophetically of the fall of the new Rome.
“We can’t expect America to be the only superpower forever,” said Dyer. “Historically, it’s common for a nation to be on top for a while. We’ve seen this several times over past few centuries. Spain is a good example. They were the dominant nation for some time, but when it was over, they went into a two hundred year slump.”
Dyer went on to give other examples of countries that had been top dog for some time but inevitably ended up falling back into obscurity, such as France and Britain, but he also pointed out that the time they spend on the high horse shortens every time a new power comes into being. By his estimation, Dyer figured that the United States has about 15 years left before it is time for another country to get their turn in the hot seat.
Imagine for a moment that you are virtually in charge of the world militarily, economically and culturally, and you realized that you only had fifteen years left before some chump steps up and steals your throne… Wouldn’t you be trying to prevent this? According to Dyer, America does and is. How are they doing it? The answer to that is a very simple made-up phrase: “Pax Americana.”
“Pax Americana is the Neo Conservative project to take over the world,” stated Dyer, going on to inform us that President Bush’s War on Terror is phase one in this diabolical scheme.
With one look at Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge’s Technicolor terror threat level and all that it implies, its obvious that the War on Terror provides a means by which to scare the American public into agreeing to support this fancily named version of neo-imperialism.
“There have only been a thousand people killed by terrorist action since 9/11. You’re more likely to die from a dog bite,” claimed Dyer, implying that the government and mass media have sensationalized terrorism into being much more of a threat than it actually is.
With the American people behind it, Pax Americana would be able to assert American political and economic control over every region of the globe if not for one pesky little organization standing in its path: the United Nations.
“The UN was created with the realization that we needed to stop having wars. It was created to prevent world war three, by the terrified survivors of the worst war in history–Pax Americana requires its destruction,” stated Dyer, letting one of the more grim notes of the evening hang in the air. If the UN is dismantled, there would be no international organizations left to offer any real support to global state sovereignty, leaving the path wide open for the American Empire to impose their dominance on the world.
“If this goes on long enough, the other world powers will be forced to make moves in order to maintain and counterbalance rampaging American power,” said Dyer. Although he didn’t come right out and say it, it doesn’t take a Political Scientist to realize that this sounds like it could quickly turn into World War Three.
Despite his grim warning of what may come if Pax Americana’s power is allowed to continually grow unfettered, Dyer quickly reminded everyone of his earlier statement regarding the fall of the American Empire within 15 years.
“They are going to crash and burn,” said Dyer. “If this goes on for long enough, it could put all of us in a really bad place.”
Just how long this does indeed go on for, and how bad of a place we find ourselves in when all is said and done, remains to be seen.