Obama is about to ask for the largest Pentagon budget in history

[Newest Reality]

18. Well,

if this is an empire, then we must be prepared for the escalation of resource wars disguised as ideological battles for _________ .
(fill in the blank with whatever propaganda and rhetoric that will work to convince people we are the good guys.)

The way I think of it is by comparing the behavior of the ultra-wealthy and their "winner takes all" perspective right here in the USA. When countries become chessboards, then the world itself can be seen as a giant chessboard and we know how expendable the pawns are and how important the "King" is.

So, we are number one in building a capacity to capture and control valuable and diminishing resources, not so much for the sake of the masses, but to assure power and control over them in order to assure continued profit along with a sense of imposed and artificial scarcity. Yes, that may sound contradictory, but our wasteful use of those resources is what makes them seem scarce and worth the effort to create military initiatives to dominate them.

Considering the size of the US population, compared to the rest of the world, our endless growth and consumption model, (with the infinite garbage can implications) is a form of energy and resource gluttony on steroids, hence, we must fight for what is right no matter what.

On the other hand, our technology could improve and enhance our capacity to utilize resources much more efficiently than ever before while providing an effective counter-balance to resource issues across-the-board. Greed, profit and inequality, (read power, control and influence) will assure a rapid ride with building momentum into a solid wall of diminishing returns with a cataclysmic crash that may be heard the world around. The bust is built-in to this current paradigm, so it may contain the seeds of its own construction.

Sadly, we may just be on the verge of actually trying "civilization" for a change and, by realizing that we have not yet had any true from of democracy, we may have begun to recognize it, initiate it and actualize it.