Written Insight - Calling Out Empire #1: What is it?

We say this word, "imperial" often. So this leads us into a series of insights on Empire called "Calling Out Empire" which, just as our ongoing slow drip "Pro-Democracy" essay series and our "Problem With the Media" insight series, this series will also be peppered throughout other outputs. But we'll start this off by simply giving a few tiers of ways of looking at what empire is. While we could write a book on this subject, and many have been, to simplify, think of empire as the darkness & shadow of the world. While the light is the opposite.

It's very crucial to not think empires are a thing of the past. The poster for Empire would be the leading edge of a medieval hoard of armored soldiers on the battlefield with a giant cross. But if you dont think modern versions of that are still persisting, think again. In binary reality, Empire is, unfortunately, somewhat timeless. And from a mythological standpoint it exists from fantasy of the long past to science fiction of the far future.

In terms of the first layer to define Empire, we'll go straight to some popular cultural science fiction references which do a good job of providing modern myths in regards to the subject... One being Avatar, with the indigenous and deeply nature connected to Eywa, Na'vi... Who have no concept of private property but instead what the agents of empire within the US would surly label as "hippie" or "socialism" or "sustainability" of sharing everything in a reciprocal cycle of living in balance. Then we have the Sky people, which are our future selves if we keep acting like imperial idiots. Whose goals are to commodify the elements of earth, air, fire, and water being 100% profit based with zero care for nature. Our next reference is Star Wars. Were you have the ragtag rebels, who do use advanced, yet stuck in the design theme of the 1970's technologies, but are fighting for justice and freedom from conquest while also having a lineage of spiritual Jedi on their side, who are the initiates into higher states of consciousness, working on behalf of the light side of the force. That compared to the dark galactic empire of fascistic, hyper hierarchical based, where no one ever smiles inside large scale advanced hard surface cold militaristic technologies, which at the top of their hierarchy are dark sorcerers who are also initiates into higher states of consciousness which either have risen in or unfortunately turned to the dark side of the force and are all about colonizing cause colonialism through wars and violence are Empire's mainstays. As a third analogous example, in the series Dune, there are Harkonnens, which basically are advanced technology yet worst case scenario psychopathic Roman Space Empires, who descend on the harsh desert planet of Arrakis, to mine, at any cost, no matter how many of the local population they kill, a priceless psychotropic substance that imparts heightened vitality and awareness called the "spice" because it's also key to interstellar travel.

The second layer, from a non-fiction geo-political standpoint, is the standard historical one. Being a central state or ruling power with a collection of territories controlled or governed by a central authority. Empires are always characterized by their expansionist ambitions, seeking to acquire and maintain control over territories (and those territories' resources) beyond their original borders. They are formed through conquest and colonization. Examples of well-known empires include from thousands to hundreds of years ago the Roman Empire, the British Empire, and the Ottoman Empire, while more recent versions have been the founding of The United States and its treatment to Native Americans and Africans or the Japanese Empire primarily up until WWII. Empires have played a significant role in shaping cultures, economies, and political systems around the world, which outside of infrastructure, which Empires generally do well, pretty much everything else about them is bad news. The United States is a great country. But, if we are to be honest, we must also admit its a militarized empire built on sociopathic settler colonialism and genocide and the backs of slaves and it still has a long way to go for making up for that. Because for example, at the time of this writing, it's still continuing it by funding the lunatics in charge of Israel whose goal is to expel or eradicate all Arabs from Palestine, who were there prior to the Jews. So, just as other Arab regions have been on the perpetrating end of the Empire, regardless of where you live in the world, unless you're an indigenous person, your country has likely been complicit in it. Each region shares the blame. Through the deep time of the precessional cycles of the Earth, in the good time, empires subside, but in times of darkness, they rise.

The third layer is the deeper psychological element to empire, which is the human administration of slowing or stopping and reverting the natural evolutionary process of each individual’s (or what one could call soul’s) spiritual growth or what could be called spiritual self development. Much more to discuss.