The Corpse of American Empire
America is lost. By this, I mean defeated. Similar to the Romans, The Greeks, and The Mongols, the American Empire as we know it has died, but its population are continuing to inhabit its corpse. Signs of decay are all around us. Bridges and other such infrastructure are failing, communication between different ideologies is non-existent, and the mobility between the classes (in both directions) has all but disappeared, leaving a pent up, frustrated, and toxic culture in its wake. We are choking on the stench of death.
Even more evidence of our demise lies in our opinions and treatment of one another. Platform decisions that would at one time rouse us to fight passionately about their outcomes, instead instill vitriol that jumps to the immediate extreme, either the opinion is extreme (i.e. “All Trans people should die!”) or the response is extreme (i.e. “if you don't think Black Lives Matter, you’re a nazi!”). Political beliefs that were once approachable and debatable have become irrevocable and inexplicable. Quite literally 1/3 or more of the country thinks that elections have been entirely stolen by the other, and are willing to restrict someones fundamental right to vote in response. Others are holding people accountable for actions they did not take and do not understand, fundamentally furthering the divide between rich, poor, white, and not.
What this means is: It’s over. If your people are no longer willing or able to abide by the basic rules of democracy, are willing to freely engage with conspiracy, openly defy the national decorum surrounding our democratic values and how we deal with one another, and are willing to sacrifice liberty and free thought for tyranny and control, then there is simply no hope left for a democratically plural superpower to exist.
So what happens when a body dies? At first, its decay is not obvious. Maybe it’s sleeping, after all. However, after a few days (years in national time) of no movement, some observers start to sense that something is indeed wrong. This is most evident in our system of lawmaking. Our lawmakers are unable to pass meaningful legislation and have reduced their actions down to self-motivating and self-benefiting political maneuvers that benefit only a few. If actions are taken, they are done as a reaction, rather than a proactive measure. Just like a corpse, there is no longer a response to external stimuli. We are, to put it simply, inert.
The next thing that happens is the smell. As mentioned above, the stench of national death is a putrid, toxic smell. The people who are permeated with this smell are the conspiracy theorists, the denialists, the paranoid, and the swindlers. They have come out in droves to trick us, deceive us, rob us, and lie to us. Like some kind of intellectual bacterium, they weasel their way around the country sapping what little inkling of free thought and open understanding that was left. As they erode our sense of reality, we all become less aware of the stench all around us, even as we too become permeated with it, unable to shake it off. Marked for death, we all begin to focus only on these issues of conspiracy and denial.
After this stage, things become truly horrible. The pent up toxicity and putrescence starts to leak. Our denialism and conspiracy, our stench and rot starts to spread throughout the remaining bodies. Our situation begins to become obvious to all in the room: We are rotting, come and get us. A new archetypal organism emerges from the miasma - The Revolutionaries - At first, they will write manifestos, sick fantasies and wish lists of how 'this place could be better if we just started fresh' with coded language and dog whistles that amount to either total political violence as a solution, anarchy, or both. These lists will include, at minimum, calls to close down or create entire sections of government, and will also likely take aim at the 'inefficient' legislative system that can so easily be replaced with a much more 'efficient' (read: non-existent) one. The revolutionaries will consume the citizens thanks to the erosion of separation and protection by the liars and swindlers.
Once the Revolutionaries have had their fill, the national body will be declared dead. In so doing, a frenetic rush of activity will occur within the body, in which the revolutionaries and their ilk of swindlers and liars will consume the body - the very citizen cells that power it - and its decay will fragment and kill what is left of the cellular makeup, the very fabric of what makes the body work, until nothing recognizable remains.
From there, all that remains are the bones of a once great body. The sprouts of a new nation might take root, or it will remain a toxic patch of dirt. There is nothing to do but watch.