What If The Empire Ended?

What If The Empire Ended?

words and protest photos by C. A. Matthews 

I was driving to a local college this past week to hear a talk by a friend about her time living in Haiti when a intriguing song came on the radio. It was totally unexpected. I was listening to a smooth jazz station run by the local school district and usually the songs are instrumentals. But the lyrics of this song struck me as being extremely relevant to the situation we find the world in today. The opening lyrics went something like this:

What if the world ended? Would those I had befriended be my friends anymore?

This wasn’t a sentiment I expected hearing in a contemporary jazz song. I wanted a copy of it*, and I was sorry there was no identification given of either the artist or the song title by the time I reached my destination. (I drive an old car. My car’s radio doesn’t have an electronic readout. It’s primitive, but it does the job. I like my car’s CD player, too.)

Anyway, the song’s lyrics intrigued me in a slightly different way than considering the end of all life on Earth. What if the empire ended? What would life be like without the US empire? What if today—not next year or the next decade—the US empire came to a crashing halt? That’s it—it’s dead and gone. What would life be like for the vast majority of us?

For one thing, I’m sure my friend’s story about her time in Haiti would have a happier ending. The US empire has meddled, couped, invaded, and generally taken advantage of that small Caribbean country over and over and over again. (Read Major General Smedley Butler’s War Is A Racket to see how he felt about his part in it.) I believe the US government owes reparations to the Haitian people for our imperialist treatment of them—and to many others as well.

So, what if the empire ended? Would those whom Americans have betrayed become our friends again? What would the world be like if the driving force behind empire building (that is, capitalism) no longer existed?

Let’s do a thought experiment with some recent headlines...

 

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