July 11, 2014   |   0 comments

John Michael Greer discusses his book Decline and Fall: The End of Empire and the Future of Democracy in 21^st Century America. ”’Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.’ Although he was writing nearly a century ago, William Butler Yeats could just as easily be describing the United States today. The decline and fall of America’s global empire is the central feature of today’s geopolitical landscape, and the nature of our response to it will determine much of our future trajectory, with implications that reach far beyond the limits of one nation’s borders.

Decline and Fall challenges the conventional wisdom of empire. Using a wealth of historical examples combined with ground-breaking original analysis, it shows how the United States has backed itself into a blind corner in the pursuit of political and economic power, explores the inevitable consequences of imperial collapse, and proposes a renewal of democratic institutions as the only constructive way forward. By shifting the conversation from whether today’s American empire should survive to whether it can survive, and arguing persuasively that the answer to the latter question is ‘no’, Decline and Fall makes an invaluable contribution to the body of speculative post-industrial literature. It is a must-read for anyone concerned about where the world is headed and what, if anything, we can do about it.

Previous interviews with John Michael Greer:
The Long Descent
The Ecotechnic Future
Green Wizardry

John’s blog: The Archdruid Report

Bumper music: Cliff Martinez ‘Traffic OST’
Cyberchump ‘The Long Goodbye’