A text by Sony Thăng : Empire is a political economy

A TEXT BY SONY THĂNG :

Here is the thing about empire that its citizens never understand until it is too late.

EMPIRE DOES NOT ONLY HAPPEN OVER THERE.

Empire is a political economy. It has a domestic structure. It makes choices about who bears the cost and who receives the benefit, and those choices are made along the same lines of power at home as abroad.

The foreign poor are sacrificed for strategic resources.

The domestic poor are sacrificed for the same system’s smooth operation at home.

The drone strike and the defunded school are not different in kind.

THEY ARE DIFFERENT IN GEOGRAPHY.

They are both answers to the same question :

WHAT IS EXPENDABLE IN THE SERVICE OF KEEPING THE ARRANGEMENT INTACT ?

So when Americans say they are losing their country, they are right that something is being lost.

But it was not taken by the immigrant or the minority or the foreign ideology.

It was lost in the same transaction in which Vietnam was bombed, and Chile was coup’d and Haiti was strangled, and Iraq was invaded, and Libya was destroyed, and a thousand other decisions were made by people who calculated that the cost was acceptable.

THE COST WAS ACCEPTABLE BECAUSE IT WAS PAID BY SOMEONE ELSE.

YOU WERE SOMEONE ELSE ONCE TOO.

YOU JUST DIDN’T KNOW IT YET.

YOU ARE FINDING OUT NOW.

And the people who made the calculation are watching, from their safe distance, with the same detachment they always had.

THE SAME DETACHMENT THEY TAUGHT YOU TO HAVE ABOUT EVERYONE ELSE.

NOW IT IS YOUR TURN TO BE THE STATISTIC.

NOW IT IS YOUR TURN TO BE THE CONTEXT.

NOW IT IS YOUR TURN TO BE THE THIRTY SECONDS OF SAD MUSIC BEFORE THE CAMERA CUTS TO SOMEONE MORE IMPORTANT.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD YOU BUILT.

WE HAVE BEEN LIVING IN IT FOR A VERY LONG TIME.