The Ruinous Root of Empire

Empire is a Disease of Humanity, Not a Necessity

Defining The Term: A Warning Before Proceeding

To Save the Republic, Improve Yourself and Embrace Your Citizenship
A lawful republic consists of a highly-educated, politically-involved and civically-engaged population.  The population make time to keep abreast of what goes on in government, makes time to study the relevant arts (e.g. rhetoric) and sciences (e.g. economics) necessary to understand what's going on and how to participate in government in manners meaningful and effective.  Put another way, they violate the taboos on discussing politics and money (and often, for good reasons, religion) in public as well as in mixed company because that's what must be done to keep a republic vibrant and healthy from top to bottom.  This is because the taboos are frauds and lies, promulgated by

The Lawful Republic is an Optimistic Society that Includes the Whole Nation
Culture matters.  Art is the primary means of cultural expression and communication, so Art matters and that means that all of the arts matter.  They are co-equal in importance to the sciences, and a whole and healthy people realize that you can't shirk or disparage either without the imbalance leaving the people open to infection by Empire.  This is no clearer than when looking at the difference between a prosperous, free and healthy society vs. one victimized by fear, uncertainty and doubt- a perfect threesome of deleterious traits commonly exploited by Empire to seize and keep control.A corrupt culture, at its heart, celebrates ignorance and provincialism.  It

The Lawful Republic Lets Neither Work Go Undone or Citizens Go Hungry
Last week I wrote about the Dominance Hierarchy concept and why it's got to go for Civilization to endure and grow into a superior form of being.  This week I talk about one very common manifestation of the Dominance Hierarchy and why it needs to go: the workplace.  Empire, remember, doesn't give a shit about you; all it wants is to perpetuate its existence forever, regardless of the impossibility of that desire, and to that end it--like an addict--will do whatever it takes to keep up its habit.  It will beat you, cheat you, cripple you and kill you so long as it gets what it wants from you.This is exactly how the corporations of the world act, and that influence does

Flatten the Pyramid of Domination
Empire relies on a hierarchy of domination and submission.  This is a system based upon fear, uncertainty and doubt wielded to create a consistent atmosphere of terror through learned helplessness.  The dominant believes that all life is a zero-sum game, and if he is to maintain his position of privilege then he must resist at all costs any attempt to let others enjoy a life of a quality like his own.  This is how doubt creates uncertainty, which in turn mutates into fear; as any Star Wars fan can tell you, fear leads to anger, anger to hate and hate to suffering.  The dominant fears losing his power, but in using his power to prevent this from happen he alw

The State Is Necessary For a People to be Free
Empire fears a republic populated by a focused, driven nation united by a common cause and working together on a single long-term goal.  It seeks to divide the people against itself, cause it to waste lives and resources on trivialities, and brainwash it into thinking that nothing outside of personal aggrandizement matters- and so enslave it into a grand hierarchy of dominance, wherein the whole of existence is not much better (for all intents and purposes) than being a slave on a plantation in the American South before the American Civil War.  It perverts lawful institutions towards this end, transforming the formal and informal tools that Mankind creates to bring order to the un