The Decay of Empires | The Fascist Republic [Prologue]

Introducing my new series of articles chronicling Americas descent into fascism.

As I’m sure my readers are aware by now, I am a big fan of history, specifically comparing past events to those of the modern day. I find I gain a greater appreciation and understanding for the perspectives of historical accounts through this lens; after all, our characteristics as a species have not changed in the small scope of human history, only our circumstances and cultural contexts do.

I have oft pondered what it must have been like to be an average person during the collapse of an empire in antiquity. No doubt cataclysmic for those in power and the aristocracy, but does the average peasant farmer see much difference? And furthermore, what was it like beholding the splendor of days past, while yourself living in squalor? When Xenophon stumbled across the hollow halls of Nineveh, abandoned to desiccation by the fleeing Assyrian empire decades before, did he feel a sense of existential dread for his own civilization? It must have been almost inconceivable for a bastion so splendid — with walls towering 100 feet high, layered 50 feet thick, and stretching miles long — to fall into such decay, a mere haunted echo of what once was. But all things must fade with time. Some burn with blinding radiance, like magnesium in a crucible, only to extinguish with the same rapidity as its ignition. Some grow slow and steadily, and develop sturdier roots, like the stately presence of a great oak. Yet time passes, and eventually they fade away — like dust in the wind, all the same.

The halls of the city once were bright:
there were many bath-houses, a lofty treasury of peaked roofs,
many troop-roads, many mead-halls
filled with human-joys until that terrible chance changed all that.

Days of misfortune arrived—blows fell broadly—
death seized all those sword-stout men—their idol-fanes were laid waste —
the stewards perished; their temples sank into soil.
For that the houses of red vaulting have drearied and shed their tiles,
these roofs of ringed wood. This place has sunk into ruin, been broken
into heaps,

There once many men, glad-minded and gold-bright,
adorned in gleaming, proud and wine-flushed, shone in war-tackle;
There one could look upon treasure, upon silver, upon ornate jewelry,
upon prosperity, upon possession, upon precious stones,
upon the illustrious city of the broad realm.

— The Ruin, The Exeter Book, approx. 8th-9th century, author unknown

The Ruin¹ is an old English elegy describing the collapse of many cities in the British Isles after Rome fell. Without the infrastructure and bureaucracy that Rome provided, much of what was fell to ruin. When a population has to worry about basic survival, there suddenly becomes no more room for master craftsman, architects, or artists. I imagine that such things are the origin of the fantasy trope of ancient civilizations being greater than current ones. History and human development are not quite as linear as we imagine them to be. We in the modern day, especially in America, seem to take for granted that the lives we enjoy are completely dependent on the collaboration of unseen laborers and servants in our society. Nothing is guaranteed to stay, and there is always further to fall, yet we seem to tempt fate at every turn.

I say all this not to imply that America will literally fall into ruin like in the poem, but to illustrate that all empires, no matter how grand, fall eventually. I don’t consider America an empire in the prototypical sense, though we have practiced imperialism multiple times in our history. As with many things in the modern day, empires have become more abstracted and complex. America does not literally control vast amounts of foreign land, like say the British did; it practices a softer form of power projection and influence over much of the world, that all the same have led to many of the benefits and roles an imperial power would assume, just with less direct burden to either side.

I have complicated feelings about this myself. On the one hand, America is guilty of destabilizing quite a few countries, and the deaths of many. On the other, our role as the global hegemon has helped stabilize just as many countries, mainly in Europe and the Asian Pacific. Say what you want about America as the global superpower, but there haven’t been any major wars between large powers since WW2, and America had much to do with that. While I understand the desire to keep America out of all global affairs, I also don’t think people understand the true implications of that. I’m sure the Anglo-Saxons, Gauls, and Germanic tribes also felt that it would be better if Rome were gone; and they were entitled to feel that way about their occupier, but were they right? Much of Europe became a backwater for centuries after Rome fell, so which is better? It’s hard to say. Empires require brutality in their genesis, but throughout history have been generally stabilizing forces that have pushed human civilization forward. Regardless, to see one fall is a feeling of unease and uncertainty that I don’t think many would actually want to experience. Nor do I.

The Rise of a Fascist Republic:

Death of the Republic, oil painting by Horace Vernet (1789 - 1863)

As Americans, we must acknowledge the truth that we now live in a fascist society. The historically ignorant and intentionally bad faith among us refuse to accept that because we haven’t reached something like the Final Solution yet, and the widespread misconception that the only thing that made the Germans in the 40’s Nazis was antisemitism and killing Jews. To the contrary, the Final Solution was called that for a reason — because every other “solution” was not enough. The road to the final solution was a gradual one, and upon each stone on that road was chiseled some sort of justification or crisis that needed to be solved.

At first, the problems that were being addressed were very real and important. The German failure in the “War to End all Wars” and the heavy sanctions placed on them as a result left the Germans bitter and resentful. To add insult to injury, the Great Depression hit an already strained society hard. The human mind is excellent at creating reasons for us to keep living, struggling, and striving — but oftentimes the mind copes by creating a target for its wrath to avoid internalizing that resentment; In this case, it was easy to shift the blame onto a minority group from a different ethnic background, with different religious practices, and whom most Germans didn’t very much like anyways. As the blame kept being shifted, and the well poisoned, the snowball began to roll faster and faster downhill, until eventually it was hurtling out of control. All of what the Nazis did furthered these ends, not just the antisemitism. The purge of political dissent and opposition, the propaganda, state control of the media, book burnings, the infiltration of the churches, putting undesirables in federal registries, taking away Jewish professional licenses, making Jews wear stars, sending Jews to ghettos, the involuntary euthanasia of disabled patients, the annexation of “rightful territory”, the labor camps — all of these events were important building blocks for how a country is walked into mass genocide. Just because Hitler hadn’t “gone too far” yet in 1934 didn’t mean that Germany was any less fascist. The moment Hitler was appointed Chancellor and allowed to dissolve the rule of law, the Weimar Republic ceased to be, and a cascade of events was set in motion that would lead to the murder of 12 million innocent people, who’s only crimes were being “undesirable”, not Aryan enough, or opposed to the Nazi state.

But make no mistake, at first the Germans still operated under the delusion that they lived in a Republic, and they held on to that facade for some time. The same can be said for modern day China, who can only be called communist in name, but still fly its symbols. Or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (aka North Korea), which is about as much of a misnomer as it gets. But why? Why hold on to such falsehoods? Because identity is a powerful thing, and words can change ones very perception.

I’ve come to understand that people don’t truly understand many of the positions they claim to hold, they simply understand that certain ideas evoke a feeling in them, and they like or dislike that feeling. As proud and boisterous as Americans are about our freedoms and patriotic symbols, they don’t actually have to be true to evoke that same feeling. We think we are so special for having a constitution, and representatives, and “inalienable rights”, as if Germany didn’t have the same thing. At the end of the day, all those things are arbitrary pieces of paper with no inherent value. We imbue those documents with power through belief and action, and if we have neither then they are moot. As hard as many Americans will fight to resist the truth, most of them would not mind having a king, they simply don’t like the implication of the word. They don’t mind giving one man all the power, as long as they get to hang on to the idea of their “Republic” and “freedom”, no matter how trampled those things become in reality.

Well, I am here to tell you to look past the words, and understand the meaning. All of the political realities of the current administration and social vectors in this nation are pointing towards the truth. This series, The Fascist Republic, is dedicated to unraveling that truth, for as long as it takes. I will be chronicling what I believe to be the collapse of the great American experiment, and the transformation of the country I love into an oligarchical-fascist state; A Republic in name only, standing dead on its feet. I consider my article on American Fascism² a few months ago to be a precursor of sorts, so read that if you haven’t, it predicted a lot of stuff that is happening right now. This series will be perpetual until either I am unable to create more, for any number of reasons, or the country is no longer threatened by the spectre of fascism. Against my increasingly cynical disposition, I desperately hope for the latter.

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No Kings Protest June 14th: https://www.nokings.org/?SQF_SOURCE=indivisible

Join Indivisible (protest organization): https://indivisible.org/

Contact Your Representatives: https://5calls.org/

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Ever vigilant, your eyes in the sky,

~Minerva

1. https://oldenglishpoetry.camden.rutgers.edu/the-ruin/

2. American Fascism: What to Expect and How to Prepare