Thursday, September 30, 2004
The New Sultans
'American Empire' is a much debated term. Smarter and more connected people than I have spilt gallons of ink over the question. Most have focussed on the external aspects of the Empire, i.e. its relations with and agression toward states that stand in its way.
Well, I'd like to focus a moment on the internal aspects of Empires in general, specifically their population policies, and see if we can draw parallels to America in the early 21st century.
One of the most salient facts of empire the demographic changes induced -- intentionally and unintentionally-- by their policies. Take the Ottomans. An Ottoman conquest was typically accompanied by resettling of the newly conquered land with foreign settlers. For example, in Bosnia the Ottomans replaced the native slav population (which fled before the Sultan's armies). The farmsteads were settled with Vlachs -- former nomads whom the Ottomans encouraged to settle down. These Vlachs were in essence beholden to the Ottoman state for their lands. Even better, they had no collective memory of the social structure before the Ottoman takeover -- and certainly no memory of the prior Bosnian state. Cut off from such sources of collective identity and oweing their position to the Sultan, they were a perfect pool of exploitable agricultural labor.
Of course, there are many more examples of the manipulation of populations in pursuit of Empire. Slavery is the obvious example. African slaves had no institutional stucture and very few symbolic sources of identity which could serve has focal points for mobilization against their oppression. In contrast, indians in North America, Mexico and further south did have resources which allowed resistance against being enslaved and even against being dispossed of their land.
Now, to American empire, current version. It seems the elite that run this empire are determined to engage in the same sort of demographic manipulation. The political, economic and cultural establishments in the US have all spent quite a large amount of effort in promoting mass immigration, getting Americans to accept ridiculously high levels of immigration, and vilifying anyone who pointed out the obvious ill effects of said immigration. The benefits for the empire builders is obvious -- a poorly paid, culturally disoriented and politically divided population which will provide an eager and cheap workforce and killing force for their imperial project. This is a hard thesis to prove -- but there have to be some critical and operationalizable variables which can provide an 'experimentum crucis'
Well, I'd like to focus a moment on the internal aspects of Empires in general, specifically their population policies, and see if we can draw parallels to America in the early 21st century.
One of the most salient facts of empire the demographic changes induced -- intentionally and unintentionally-- by their policies. Take the Ottomans. An Ottoman conquest was typically accompanied by resettling of the newly conquered land with foreign settlers. For example, in Bosnia the Ottomans replaced the native slav population (which fled before the Sultan's armies). The farmsteads were settled with Vlachs -- former nomads whom the Ottomans encouraged to settle down. These Vlachs were in essence beholden to the Ottoman state for their lands. Even better, they had no collective memory of the social structure before the Ottoman takeover -- and certainly no memory of the prior Bosnian state. Cut off from such sources of collective identity and oweing their position to the Sultan, they were a perfect pool of exploitable agricultural labor.
Of course, there are many more examples of the manipulation of populations in pursuit of Empire. Slavery is the obvious example. African slaves had no institutional stucture and very few symbolic sources of identity which could serve has focal points for mobilization against their oppression. In contrast, indians in North America, Mexico and further south did have resources which allowed resistance against being enslaved and even against being dispossed of their land.
Now, to American empire, current version. It seems the elite that run this empire are determined to engage in the same sort of demographic manipulation. The political, economic and cultural establishments in the US have all spent quite a large amount of effort in promoting mass immigration, getting Americans to accept ridiculously high levels of immigration, and vilifying anyone who pointed out the obvious ill effects of said immigration. The benefits for the empire builders is obvious -- a poorly paid, culturally disoriented and politically divided population which will provide an eager and cheap workforce and killing force for their imperial project. This is a hard thesis to prove -- but there have to be some critical and operationalizable variables which can provide an 'experimentum crucis'
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