Here We Go Again

[poliphilo]

Once upon a time- not so long ago- there was a thing called the Austro-Hungarian Empire. There was also a thing called the Ottoman Empire.  In their time they seemed like they were going to last forever. Only they didn't. Then there was the USSR...

Super states are inefficient. Power is centralised and ignorant and unresponsive. Their populations resent them. When they go it's all of a sudden- as if the only thing sustaining them were bluff. One day they blot out the sun, the next there's nothing left of them but a cloud of dust.

Once the cracks appear there's nothing to be done to save them. As now, with the EU...

Comments

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

I find it impossible to see the EU as some sort of empire. What's more, the problems the EU faces today are self-inflicted and not necessarily inevitable or systemic. The Eurozone is in trouble for the same reason that Britain's economy has no hope in Hell of recovering anytime in the foreseeable future: your leaders are, for the most part, genuinely stupid. That man-child Cameron is typical of the breed, today, but far from unique.

I don't see super states as necessarily inefficient, either. The US is a good example. Historically, we have been highly efficient. Today, we may be at a standstill, but with a quarter of our citizens actively trying to destroy the republic this is to be expected. The dysfunction evident in our government today didn't just happen; it is the direct result of a vigorous campaign on the part of the Republican party to make it so. If they can't rule the US with a free hand, they will burn it to the ground and rule over the smoking ruins.