As the United States’ imperial system and Western hegemony circles the drain, lucid thought is becoming a rare commodity. But there is hope.

2008.

That is the year, after reading Dmitry Orlov’s Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Example and American Prospects, that the possibility of some form of collapse of the United States came to my attention.

I have had plenty of time therefore to come to terms with both the prospects of histories latest edition of imperial collapse, as well as to observe the early and ongoing stages of that collapse. Given the importance of this topic to both the world and Australia’s place in it, I thought it was a topic worth writing about, resulting in essays being both published in the Australian Defence Force Journal and rejected, as well as many articles here at Pearls and Irritations.

When it comes to the mainstream thinking in Australian defence, security and foreign policy circles however, those proponents of the system defined by the hegemonic leadership of the United States supported by its Western ‘allies’, the prospect let alone the actuality of a collapse appears to be the cause of much consternation.

The tone of recent commentary by those true believers in the United States imperial system, whom Will Schryver describes as ‘Empire Evangelists,’ is becoming increasingly shrill, desperate, even unhinged. The logic of their positions is equally questionable. The cognitive dissonance resulting from the ongoing self-inflicted collapse of the United States’ imperial system has robbed them of their lucidity.

The afflicted appear locked into a narrow ideology which leaves little room to adapt their perspective to a rapidly evolving international system. An epitome of which was provided by a recent statement by the Executive Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) where he stated: “No United States, no AUKUS, no Quad, no Five Eyes, no hope.”

No hope!

An incredible statement. Which presupposes that there is only one possible future for Australia. It is a perspective that ignores the numerous historical precedents of changing alliances and relationships between countries........

© Pearls and Irritations