06-30-2016, 08:56 PM
For America it all depends on how we behave ourselves. A good America will likely get through this Crisis Era if the rest of the world does, and probably in better shape at its end. A bad America stands to be ruined, with many Americans (including politicians, capitalists, financiers, military officers, and media figures) subjected to harsh judgment for their crimes. America could be partitioned in full or part.
Imagine that this Crisis is the mirror image of the last, except that the Japanese are the good guys and victors. Some Japanese general compels American leadership to sign a term of surrender, takes up residence along with his staff in the Fairmont or Mark Hopkins in San Francisco, and starts dictating change in American institutions from economics to education. It's all reasonable. Japanese language lessons begin promptly in American schools, corrupt businesses get broken up, and really bad guys get arrested. Adults who have recently had cushy jobs are compelled to be farm laborers or unskilled construction workers.
Imagine that this Crisis is the mirror image of the last, except that the Japanese are the good guys and victors. Some Japanese general compels American leadership to sign a term of surrender, takes up residence along with his staff in the Fairmont or Mark Hopkins in San Francisco, and starts dictating change in American institutions from economics to education. It's all reasonable. Japanese language lessons begin promptly in American schools, corrupt businesses get broken up, and really bad guys get arrested. Adults who have recently had cushy jobs are compelled to be farm laborers or unskilled construction workers.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.