Imperial evolution (with poll)

Historian William Marina has a very interesting piece on the historical evolution of empires and our current historial moment. Its an insightful piece that gets to the larger forces that have driven civilization for millenia:

What is less understood is that all of the great empires in history have been characterized by a decline of reason and an increase in super-naturalist faith, combined with a belief in the empire with the emperor holding God's "mandate" on earth.

Do you think the American empire is exceptional, therefore resistant to the historical tides that have characterized others in history? full article

There are only three ultimate sources upon which derivative values such as "equality" can be based: supernatural law, natural law and statist, positive law. Empires tend to combine all of the three so that the emperor's legitimacy flows from God, nature, and his position as head of State. The intertwining of religion and nationalism in the State is indeed a very powerful one. Today's unflinching, fundamentalist Christian support for the war in Iraq and U.S. global interventionism (regardless of the facts) was foretold earlier by anti-rational evangelical attempts to control textbooks, deny evolutionary principles, and block scientific research--sure early signs of the rise of a new "Age of Empire." The most famous book-burning incidentally was not pro-war Lynne Cheney's recent effort, or even Adolf Hitler's in 1933, but rather that of the great Ch'in Emperor, Shih Huang-ti (a central figure in the recent film, Hero) of imperial China in 221 B.C.

full article