THE SOLE SUPERPOWER ON EARTH

August 1, 2019

Only a few nations have risen to superpower status over the centuries, but without exception, they have all fallen victim, primarily, to the same enemy. I will talk more about that shortly.

As an American I can tell you with reasonable confidence that a majority of Americans take great pride in being the ‘Sole Superpower’ on the planet. I can only imagine how the people of a previous ‘Superpower’ felt when it was said of them in the 19^th century, “The empire on which the sun never sets”. This of course was the British Empire, of which its territory spanned the globe. There was nowhere on the planet where the sun didn’t always shine on ‘some part’ of British ruled territory.

The decline of the British Empire was on public display in 1997 when Prince Charles wrote in his, then private journal, while flying back from attending the handover of the colony of Hong Kong to China, “Such is the end of Empire, I sighed to myself,”

While researching another ‘Superpower’ that enjoyed this status some 2,500 years ago I came upon something exceptionally astonishing and unique to great empires. I happened upon J.R Fears and something he wrote entitled, “REFLECTIONS ON THE RISE AND FALL OF EMPIRES”.

After clicking on the above link and reading the article by J.R Fears I’m sure you came away with the same thing I did. We are living in a perilous time for our country. Everyone of us should be concerned. We are witnessing for the first time in American history ALL the signs that toppled every empire from Darius, the King of the Persians, to the present time.

“The greatest mistake made by those in power, like Darius, was the sin of hybris.  That Greek word means “outrageous arrogance.”  Hybris (and that is the way it should be transliterated) is the outrageous arrogance that marks the abuse of power.  Only those invested with enormous power can commit the sin of hybris.  Hybris is the imposition of your will, at all costs.  The Greeks believed that hybris was preceded by ate or moral blindness that makes you believe that you can do anything you want to and there will be no consequences from either Gods or men.  It was this hybris that led Darius to undertake a preemptive war against Athens.  It was his moral blindness that believed he would never know defeat.  He ignored all the warnings that the Gods sent him because he felt so secure in his power”.

By: J.R Fears

Does this look and sound like America today? If we fail to learn the lessons of the past, we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes.

Nathaniel Stalling Jr.

nstalling@gmail.com