We, the Western Civilization are the last vestiges of semi-autonomy; we see ourselves as Vestal Virgins keeping that flame, but in truth we are vestigial appendages that no longer serve any purpose whatsoever to our hegemonic host.

Now, that may seem like a mouthful of words, a contrived way to play out a pun, but it is not. The truth is plain to see.

Somehow, we wrapped our heads around it from our very inception as a Nation. The atrocities done the Peoples whose land we coveted were “Savages.” The Peoples of Africa were “Lazy Mud-people.” The Peoples of Russia were “Godless Communists.” Southeast Asia was full of “Cat-eating Gooks.” The Peoples of South America were “Violent Drug-dealers.” The People of the Middle east were “Raghead Jihadis.” Now, Africa again, is full of “Tribal Terrorists.”

We went along with it. We go along with it. We never asked what the Peoples of those Nations, the People themselves wanted. We just “knew” somehow, if we could make them more like us, they’d be better off, you see. We were the keepers of the flame of Democracy, Hard Work, The American Dream, McDonalds and Huarachi sandals too. If they weren’t so backward, such animals, they would see we were trying to help them. You know, they made us kill them, the idiots. We were Freedom Inc© weren’t we? The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah and Johnny got his Gun, by God.

We made the Wars look sexy, Shock and Awe in technicolor. We brought vaccinations and antibiotics to cure the diseases they got from us. We moved them out of tents living in harmony with nature and brought them into the sweatshops. We bombed their asses back into the Stone Age, by golly, a clean slate on which our new history would be written.

Were we the Virginal face of Freedom and Democracy, or the very Visage of the fiery demon of nightmares to the “other” peoples of the World?

So we came. First our spies, then our proxies, then our agents provocateurs if needed, then our assassins and armies, then our Puppet governments. Even those with a remote sense of History knows this to be true. It doesn't end there, of course. Because then came the anteater itself. Our Corporations.

The Ayatollah, The Shah, Pinochet, Marcos, Duvalier, BinLaden, Dutra, Hussein, Gaddafi, the list of dominoes we set up, used and topple is endless... we sometimes see this, but the blindspot we carry for the real fallout is the worst of our sins.

The fallout from dirty bombs, the cancers, the birth defects, the generational punishment inflicted on Peoples long after our Wars end, and we go back to watching football on our Sony TV's. The ancient artifacts erased to make way for American mining, the rainforests forever gone to make way for "Oil-road Truckers."

Collateral damage, we are told. Just wait, they will soon be grateful. Western music, western mores, western shopping, western wages, western medicine, western Democracy, and best of all? Western Capitalism. It’s the panacea to the World's woes.

Just look at us!

Wait.

Look at us. Things aren't doing so well. Maybe, just maybe, with some adjustments we can go back to some bubble or another and have excess income again. A one-wage family with two cars in the garage. Our house is a very, very, very fine house with 2 cats in the yard and we don't have to Win-a-bago, they were giving them away. Why is not coming back? I mean look at us, we are going from bad to worse, slippery sloping the way to 3rd world status. What have we done to deserve this? We're still the innocent Virginal protectors of Democracy Inc© right? I mean other than enable all that other shit going on "over there." We did it to help them, and help ourselves, right?

Look at us. We're pathetic. And clueless. And willfully blind.

The truth is plain to see, as is the path from there to here. Someone just had to work, to build the stuff, to make them Rich, to make the machines, to make the war, to make the conquest of the other people, who now do the work, to make the stuff, to make them rich, to make the wars, to kill and conquer yet more people. Its like a children's jump-rope song of the American Way, now, going off into an endless loop.

In other words? We're vestigal limbs now. Lost, confused, useless, without worth or meaning.

The West, living with our entitlement to at least some measure of the excesses gained at the loss of others is the last impediment in the way of, well, more that the Corporate owners could be enjoying. We're the last one demanding a cut. Other than them damned Socialist Commie Pinkos. Who they will crush.

You see, no one gets richer without making someone else poorer. Period. It’s basic math.

We are in the way of that. So, I guess it’s time they bring Freedom Inc. © to us. I hope we will be as grateful as the People of the "Rest of the World" have been when we enabled that gift to be brought to them.

It seems now that we are resisting this Brand of Democracy at long last, the cycle has begun anew. How did that go again? First our spies, (PAT ACT - CHECK) then our proxies, (OBAMA - CHECK) then our agents provocateurs if needed, (THE TEA PARTY - CHECK) then our assassins (LOCAL POLICE DEPARTMENTS - CHECK) and armies, (COMING SOON TO A TOWN NEAR YOU!!!)  then our Puppet governments. (OH, MY DEARS, IT CAN GET WORSE...)

Suddenly? It makes one feel kind of shameful to watch as the Whole World joins in support behind our people against this onslaught; after a couple centuries of our silence when the onslaught was theirs. Hmmmm. You see, we've only ever been SEMI-autonomous. They understood that from afar better than we did right smack dab in the middle of it. The Corporate Class just let us play dress-up to vote on the Emperor’s new clothes. New boss, old boss, same boss, game boss, it’s a bossinova spectacular that only we believed. They have far more empathy than we ever did. They get the differences between bosses and People... something we are only now figuring out.

They've long ruled Europe, and now Asia and Africa are the goals after a long drawn out conquest of the Middle East. Fuck flying your Colors, people, line up and sign up for your Corporate Logo branding iron hit right now!!! We too get to be grateful to have the opportunity to live in poverty and work in sweatshops and pay dearly for the medicines for the diseases they bring us. Need a flu outbreak? There's an app for that! Camping is illegal; homelessness is a crime. Work-camps? There's a precedent for that. Resistance? There's an XE Contractor for that.

You see? We uppity Americans are the last domino standing, between them and the World.

God forbid we start a Global revolution or anything. Can enough ants swarming ever take down the anteater, if enough People unite, can we take out the Killer Thieves?

We, the Western Civilization are the last vestiges of semi-autonomy; we see ourselves as Vestal virgins keeping that flame, but in truth we are vestigial appendages that no longer serve any purpose whatsoever to our hegemonic host.

They say we have no meaning, the Global Occupation, but the truth is plain to see. They will not let us be. It’s enough to make you turn a whiter shade of pale.

Think about it.... before all of our vestigial selves are "surgically" struck off....we are the last thing in their way.

And that is the end of my cautionary "tail"!

(Disclaimer: there are places far more autonomous than we - but written for the average american purview - let the device suffice and that lesson save for another day - d)