Ever the victim of unprovoked attacks from the people it has been strangling. Ever the shining city on a hill of human corpses. Ever the defender of the poor, helpless plutocrats of Wall Street.
(Treehill/Wikimedia Commons)
By Caitlin Johnstone
Caitlin’s Newsletter
Listen to Tim Foley reading this article.
Welcome to the Empire
Where genocide is self-defense and peace rallies are genocide
Where war criminals are the victims and the hospitals are Hamas
Where calls for freedom are hateful and ceasefires are anti-semitic
Where civilians get called terrorists and real terrorists get Nobel Peace Prizes
Where the propaganda is journalism and the journalism is propaganda
Where the democracy is real and the apartheid is imaginary
Where the corporations are people and the people are corporate resources
Welcome to the empire
Whose bombs are humanitarian and whose provocations are invisible
Whose veterans are heroes and whose victims are forgotten
Whose wars are always just and whose enemies are always Hitler
Whose cause is always righteous and whose critics are always Russian
Whose sufferings are unforgivable and whose crimes are erased from history
Whose atrocities are always an unfortunate accident and whose enemies kill civilians for fun
Whose disastrous interventions are always innocent mistakes no matter how often they happen
Welcome to the empire
Ever the victim of unprovoked attacks from the people it has been strangling
Ever the shining city on a hill of human corpses
Ever the defender of the poor helpless plutocrats of Wall Street
Ever the savior of the families incinerated by missiles made by Raytheon
Ever the protector of natural resources in the soil of foreign nations
Ever the upholder of the rules-based order of a world with a boot on its throat
The empire loves you with a heart made of dollars and oil
The empire watches over you through your smartphone and your computer
The empire is your only friend
The empire is the only one who will ever love you
You can’t leave
You can’t get rid of the empire
If you get rid of the empire, this world could be taken over by tyrants
Caitlin Johnstone’s work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following her on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, YouTube, or throwing some money into her tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy her books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff she publishes is to subscribe to the mailing list at her website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything she publishes. For more info on who she is, where she stands and what she’s trying to do with her platform, click here. All works are co-authored with her American husband Tim Foley.
This article is from CaitlinJohnstone.com.au and re-published with permission.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
Thank you Caitlin, for keeping us on track among all the distractions thrown our way! And for giving us hope that we can do better!!!
Three words, “ Crank It Up!!!”
(+) TY, Caitlin Johnstone, Tim Foley (reading this article), CN!
Keep It Lit!
I would describe this item as a poetic outburst of indignation rather than as a piece of useful analysis, except to the extent that it provides an interesting list of some of the ideological false claims and lies peddled as truths by the “Empire”. At any rate, a certain formal inconsistency detracts from its literary value as well as from its possible usefulness as an instrument of agitation, for here Caitlin uses, broadly speaking, two types of statements: 1) sarcastic reformulations of (or references to) ideological lies and 2) statements of fact. Dear Caitlin, even when you are – so to speak – preaching to the converted (who all know what you are talking about), you can’t jumble these together pell-mell in the same period (as you repeatedly do) without differentiating what is true from what is false, either by the syntactic position of the statement in the period or by some other consistent literary device.
While these are all true statements, it is the underlying systemic conditions that their shocking abundance paper over; there is value in addressing them directly and individually, but they will return immediately as the pressure of opposition relaxes. Until the issues of the mismatch of human biological nature and our capacities to create conditions in which that nature responds dysfunctionally, we will continue to manifest and even add to the list.
Excellent compendium of the hypocritical positions and attitudes in this USA I live in. I mistakenly thought that things were looking up in mid/late 70’s, but then peoples’ greed and the neo-cons (a redundancy?) re-established themselves, and here we are….
To our journalist poet, thank you. As everyone around you swallows the swill of empire it kind of makes you wonder about yourself and your perceptions. I need Consortium to stay sane.
Bravo!
That the perpetrators would read and understand this poem, and change their ways for the benefit of all persons.
Keep writing.
Caitlin, you just keep getting better and better. This article is brilliant. I have to admit that a sense of sadness came over me as I finished reading it and I’m hopeful other readers felt the same way. There are better days ahead for the empire, but they are not in the very near future.
Caitlin’s writing is always true to the reality that is the world we live in.
Most people are oblivious to this reality and think our governments are on our side.
But, as Caitlin has pointed out, time and time again, politicians are selfish and greedy and lack empathy, and so on and so on.
Never more obvious than in the past 12 months, with the Ukraine-Russia war and the Palestine-Western Nations war.
It would appear that the bad guys are Hamas and the good guys are the IDF. This is an infantile logic, not worthy of serious consideration. But it is what I saw and heard spewing out of the mouth of the TV spokesperson,; a person who was totally unaware of the one-sidedness her contribution. Of course there will be no endgame, but just a puerile incantation of self-righteousness. The war party cannot speak, because it cannot and does not want to think.
Unfortunately, thi article is 100% spot on.
I share the frustration that lies below these comments. I have often voiced similar sentiments. However, even as we struggle against the hypocrisy and even boldface lies that pervade our current public discourse in the halls of government, in the public media and in the so-called “social media,” I want to look forward to a day when we can rebuild a healthy sense of patriotism. When I was a boy, I recall my elders saying “may my country always be right, but my country right or wrong.” I never felt comfortable with the second half of that statement, because true love and devotion devotion cannot tolerate what is truly evil. None of our founding documents or institutions were perfect, but the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution, along with some foolish rubbish, contain ideals that are worth defending. It is time for a rebirth not of mindless flag-waving, but rather a rebirth of true patriotism, where we are active citizens of a country among other countries that make up this world where we live.
A poem I read as a young woman in Massachusetts, pursuing a PhD in English and learning first hand how the Viet Nam War worked inside the Empire….it has stayed with me into my 70’s.
So here it is now: LIFE AT WAR by Denise Levertov
The disasters numb within us
caught in the chest, rolling
in the brain like pebbles. The feeling
resembles lumps of raw dough
weighing down a child’s stomach on baking day.
Or Rilke said it ‘my heart…
Could I say of it it overflows
with bitterness…but no, as though
its contents were simply balled into
formless lumps, thus
do I carry it about.’
The same war
continues.
We have breathed the grits of it in, all our lives,
our lungs are pocked with it,
the mucus membrane of our dreams
coated with it, the imagination
filmed over with the grey filth of it:
the knowledge that humankind,
delicate Man, whose flesh,
responds to a caress, whose eyes
are flowers that perceive the stars,
whose music excels the music of birds,
whose laughter matches the laughter of dogs
whose understanding manifests designs
fairer than the spider’s most intricate web,
still turns without surprise, with mere regret
to the scheduled breaking open of breasts whose milk
runs out over the entrails of still alive babies
transformation of witnessing eyes to pulp fragments,
implosion of skinned penises into carcass-gulleys.
We are the humans, men who can make;
whose language imagines mercy
loving-kindness; we have believed one another
mirrored forms of a God we felt as good-
who do these acts, who convince ourselves
it is necessary; these acts are done
to our own flesh; burned human flesh
is smelling in Viet Nam as I write.
Yes. this is the knowledge that jostles for space
in our bodies along with all we
go on knowing of joy, of love
our nerve filaments twitch with its presence
day and night,
nothing we say has not the husky phlegm of it in the saying
nothing we do has the quickness, the sureness,
the deep intelligence living at peace would have.
SO WE ARE ALL POISONED, SLOWLY BUT SURELY……..so my own life has been diminished, damaged and made less worthwhile for the endless wars we have pursued during my lifetime…….all over the reeling globe. I will die with the futility of it all degrading my time here, as will we all.
Great poem! All too accurate. I naively thought back in the sixties, that would be the end of it. Then the Iraq war turned me into a cynic But I still had hope.
Now, I am grateful for the truthful voices that still speak out in the wilderness.
Thank you
Thankyou for that poignant poem ingamarie. It affected me deeply.
“. I will die with the futility of it all degrading my time here, as will we all.”
Sounds about right. Now we just have to set it to martial music.
Caitlin nails it again.
Oh, how deliciously and wickedly insightful! Now, Caitlin, how will you extricate your tongue from your cheek?
Yes and add to this our democratic system that every two to fours its election cycle presents an existential threat to all of human civilization. All of the world subject to election or reelection strategy of both parties for lies promoting lies for wars such as Vietnam, or Iraq or proxy wars like Afghanistan mujaheddin against USSR or Ukraine against Russia.
Or excuses to weaponize crisis for goals like sabotage of Paris peace talks on Vietnam or Embassy staff hostage in Iran until after an election.
Demonizing enemies and defamation of entire people for religious purposes that might have been used by the Romans long ago still plaguing people over lies.
Surrounding countries with economic sanctions like a siege of castles long ago.
Huan civilization must curb its addiction military profit motive and protection racket sapping world resources for destructive inhuman power. The military promote each other for mutual prestige and wages of war.
It’s amazing that Caitlin’s husband, American Tim Foley, co-authors her published articles. 5his one on the US empire (mostly) is written in poetic prose that makes it very readable.
Well done to both of them.
Thank you, Ms. Orwell.
“You can’t get rid of the empire”
Perhaps, but the Empire is on life-support. And the sooner it meets its demise, the better.
Where the demoralized endlessly virtue-signal their ignorance and hubris.
Where the self-appointed ‘saviors of democracy’ are the jailers and true ‘Fascists.’
Where the most educated and truly privileged are the most miserable and hateful among us.
Where the ‘fact-checkers’ obfuscate, lie and disinform.
Where the ultra-greedy spend away our future and always ‘for the children,’ that they steal from.
Where the biggest con-artists and hustlers are rewarded with election to Congress and the White House.
Where the ‘journalists’ award themselves prizes for doing the dirty work of selling lies for the CIA and Deep State.
Where the dumbest, least capable imbecile is put in charge of leading us.
Magnificent. Poetry and truth. Thank you. Yesterday Biden and Netanyahu supposedly talked about the possibility of a two state solution. So says Biden. Cute little story. Every hour, two mothers are killed by Israel in Gaza bombing.
A brilliant new “Howl” for post-democracy America. Apropos of everything it says, and says so well. Nicely done. This should be beside the Pledge of Allegiance in every school classroom. Yet I have a feeling it won’t be included on the syllabus.
Once again – she describes the US in a “nut”shell ….
Thanks, Ms Johnston!
To read your articles is like standing in front of someone asserting a truth, unrelenting truth.
They are a must read.
Sums it all up quite nicely . . .
Johnstone – heir to Fearless Peerles PILGER.
A good summary. Love it.
Not left out but hidden
Ever full of thoughts and prayers for the ones the empire murders.
Ever the victim and never the aggressor.
Plenty more where that came from.
Excellent. A monologue that needs to be recognized. A monologue that reaches from the hell instilled within the corporpoate overclass to the depths of suffering and death of the human heart. The revolution must be televised.
Every empire has its day. The U.S. empire is in decline and will be gone sometime in the future.
Where it is acceptable to believe in the state of Israel but not acceptable to not believe in the State of Israel.
Empires come…Empires go…And the sooner America’s ’empire’ goes, the more lives will be saved.
Caitlin Johnstone could have made this piece one sentence long by writing:
Ever the the capitalist exploitation, never the socialism of human need.
Everything she lists is a symptom of capitalism and its antiquated nation states. Unless you address that elephant in the room directly, everything else is obfuscation.
Welcome to the empire
Where voting for either party will result in the same outcome.
Welcome to the Empire. Indeed. Another person who has also spoken about America’s crimes is MEP [Member of the European Parliament] and Irish politician Clare Daley. Ms. Daley, who is a member of the left-wing Irish party called Independents 4 Change, gave a brief but fiery speech at that organization on January 16. In her speech, which has received remarkably little attention from the U.S. mainstream media, Ms. Daley pointed out that:
“Despite the catastrophic death toll it has inflicted, Israel is losing on the ground and in the court of public opinion. There’s no way that this ends that doesn’t leave Israel a pariah state, with occupation and apartheid on borrowed time and they know it. So they’re doing everything they can: desperate acts of aggression to provoke a wider conflict with Lebanon, with Iran, with anybody, to draw in the U.S. to save them from the consequences of their own actions.
“And as Yemen shows, Butcher Biden is reporting for duty. With Europe’s Frau Genocide by his side, they are the ones who have enabled the continuation of Israeli terror. Without them, it would already be over. So take note Butcher Biden: the ancestors of the Ireland that you claim to be from disown you. Keep our country out of your mouth. And as for [Ursula] von der Leyen and genocidal Germany with your words and deeds supporting Israel in the ICJ: not in our name! The people of Europe stand with Palestine and with South Africa.”
One hopes that the term Butcher Biden, who continues to prostrate himself on a daily basis at the feet of the murderous state of Israel, will soon have as much resonance as Genocide Joe and that people in the United States will remember what Biden has done come election day.
BDS
Thanks for sharing that incredible speech by Daley. The Empire thinks it can go on without remorse. But remorse is released by the contagion of hubris. They’ve given up on anything resembling reality. The Empire is now in the realm of myth, where the light of reason no longer intrudes.
Positively illuminating Caitlin!
You’ve deconstructed it.