What we are witnessing is the final end of the Cold War™.  A war that America has inexplicably continued after it was won with the anathema of the Soviet Union in 1991.

This end of the Cold War™ does not come with a peace treaty or a rational recalibration of global power; it ends with a ham-fisted dismantling of institutions that the world—and at least a segment of the American population—believes are the bulwarks of freedom.

It is not a total surprise that this change is a culture shock. These institutions had been propagandized (and I am using this word as Edward Bernays would) as the barriers holding back the power of the Godless Commies (USSR, not CCCP) and the sinister machinations of the almost Fu Manchu-like Moskals, despite that the godless communists intent on infiltrating us had to be replaced by the idea of corrupt oligarchs intent on infiltrating us.

There is a long-standing prejudice that the average American often unconsciously carries toward the idea of Russian power that is sustained by the press and promoted by common media. 

One could say this goes back to the start of our nation. While not an American, British diplomat Charles Whitworth, 1st Earl Whitworth, who served as an ambassador to Russia in the late 18th century, once wrote in a letter dated 1785:

“The magnificence of the court is striking, yet beneath the gilded surface lies a squalor that offends the senses; courtiers adorned with pearls, yet their persons betray a neglect bordering on the verminous.”

The common language we share with that author has amplified, and that perception has persisted into modern times, appearing in popular media, in classic (and shitty) films, and in the press.

The belief that Russians are an existential threat to the U.S. remains more deeply ingrained than fears of other foreign adversaries—such as Saudi Arabia (from which 19 hijackers came to attack the U.S.), Israel (which has contributed a quarter of a billion dollars to U.S. politicians since 1990, excluding dark money), or the People’s Republic of China (which harbors a world domination ambition with a red hard-on visible from space). Americans must confront their own biases—stopping just short of full Maoist self-criticism, lest we veer into actual Communism—and ask: why is the way it has always been so important, especially when it wasn’t exactly working? It seemed only to bring us closer to nuclear war and an ever-expanding military budget. It is strange what we are told to fear and when we are told to fear it.

Change is never lovely, simple, or done correctly. The heads removed during the French choppy-choppy time caused quite a mess. Heck, our own Revolution of 1776 was an almost total disaster. Change is not lovely. But here it is. It is not that the American people did not call for change.  Sometimes, it was ridiculous characters like Linden Larouch or Ron Paul. Sometimes, it was for rational actors like Ralph Nader and Bernie Sanders.  The people called again and again for change, but this change was blocked, like water flowing through ice or stone or whatever best fits, change eventually happens even if it does not happen the way you want it to.  So here we are, with change at the hands of the current president, whom we shall call Captain Chaos (CC) since it is apparent that this change agent moves quickly, breaks stuff, and has access to the nuclear codes (which we will pretend doesn’t matter for now).

This change marks the unofficial end of the Cold War™.   The mask is off, and we do not all like what we see since, with that mask, we could pretend we were not precisely what we turned into post-war, an Imperial Power that used soft and hard violence to get what it wanted.  This change will threaten and frighten many Americans (and others).

For many Americans, the country has remained static for decades. “Why can’t it just be like it was,” a good 75 million or so of us now say.  Change is innovation at a rapid and uncertain rate.  And change has not happened in the United States in decades.

This may be best illustrated not by analyzing politics (for now) but by looking at fashion on TV.

While TV was corny in 1992,  and you certainly won’t laugh at the same jokes, think of how characters dressed and interacted when the United States first enjoyed unipolarity following the collapse of the Soviet Union and today.  Compare a 1992 episode of The Real World with any TV show from 1962.

The differences between 1962 and 1992 were remarkable.  You can look at a show and say not just the decade but often the year.  Then look at the Real World and compare it to The Office, then compare it to today.

After the Communists were vanquished, we mostly stopped and held things in place.  If you walked in dressed exactly like Michael Scott was when the series launched, it would not look strange.  No one would be like, hey, 2007, they want their shirt back” However, if today you dressed like a character from The Dick Van Dyke Show, say, Dick Van Dyke, you would look like you were going to a costume party.  This is a silly but profound expression of our static attempt to keep an unraveling Empire and dying brand of capitalism together.   

We have been sold change though.  We get technology.  that has changed things.  Your pile of toxic battery-powered toys rotting in the dump leaching into the groundwater has certainly grown.  But has that technology altered that we still have to work for a living?  That Michael Scott would be sending out emails from his phone rather than his computer really doesn’t change the power dynamics. 

We have changes in our culture to the point that we have a culture war, but while little details have changed, have the larger bitchings remained the same. If we said sagging pants and school shootings are caused by video games and absent fathers, are we talking about the 90s or today?

The system’s underpinnings have remained the same despite growing old, sclerotic, and obsolete.  If anything, we added to them by creating new departments and initiatives primarily warring on things like terror but also undermining unions, the buying power of the average American, or a drastic change in participatory democracy.  The PowersThatBe wanted the Cold War(tm) forever as it enriched the political leaders and the corporations and continued the Real Politik of Kissenger long after the Devil dragged his soul to hell.

No matter the party, Republocrat or Demoplublian, both parties propped up Cold War™ institutions and resisted calls for change, even when these calls came from inside the government.

In June 1997, a group of 50 foreign policy experts, including former senators, defense officials, and diplomats, signed an open letter to President Clinton opposing NATO expansion. They argued it was a “policy error of historic proportions,” potentially destabilizing Europe and undermining U.S.-Russian relations. Signatories included figures like Sam Nunn, Gary Hart, Paul Nitze, and Robert McNamara.

While USAID has given away a lot of rice, it is also used as a tool of great violence. During the counterinsurgency efforts in Guatemala, USAID’s Office of Public Safety (OPS) collaborated closely with local police forces. Between 1966 and 1974, OPS provided extensive training in counterinsurgency, intelligence gathering, and interrogation techniques. This collaboration aimed to suppress insurgent activities and align Guatemala’s internal security measures with U.S. strategic interests during the Cold War. In October 1966, the Guatemalan Army, bolstered by U.S. military aid, launched a large-scale pacification effort in the departments of Zacapa and Izabal, dubbed “Operation Guatemala.” Under the command of Colonel Carlos Arana Osorio, military forces, with guidance from approximately 1,000 U.S. Green Berets, targeted suspected insurgents and their civilian supporters. The operation involved systematic arrests, torture, and extrajudicial killings. Estimates suggest that between 3,000 and 8,000 peasants were killed by the army and paramilitary organizations during this period. Colonel Arana Osorio earned the nickname “The Butcher of Zacapa” due to the brutality of the campaign.

The Voice of America, a valuable tool to promote Jazz in Nazi Germany and Rock n Roll to the Soviet Union was also a tool of the state. In October 1956, Hungarians initiated an uprising against Soviet-imposed policies, seeking greater political freedom and national autonomy. During this period, Western broadcasters, including VOA, transmitted messages that many Hungarian listeners interpreted as supportive of their cause. These broadcasts, coupled with speeches by U.S. leaders advocating for the “liberation” of oppressed peoples, led many Hungarians to believe that Western military assistance was forthcoming. However, such support did not materialize, and the Soviet Union forcefully suppressed the revolution, resulting in significant loss of life and political repression.

The only people genuinely questioning the institutions of American Imperial Power and Late Capitalism (while they had different reasons and solutions) were leftists, rallying around Bernie Sanders, and right-wingers, rallying around the current president. The centrists—the Biden/Obamas, the Bush/Clintons—merely filed the opposition letters, ignored the calls for reform and adjusted the horizontal and vertical, refusing to change the channel, growing increasingly disconnected from the population.

Now, President Captain Chaos (PCC) has become the instrument of one of these two factions. Unfortunately, it’s not the side many of us would have preferred. Many had hoped for a more educated, deliberate dismantling or reform of these institutions. But reform was off the table in the 2016 and 2020 primaries, courtesy of the Demopublican Republocrats.

Ancien régime institutions are being swept away or diminished. This will have short-term destructive consequences—but then, so did the beheading of kings and queens. No one “sort of” chopped off Marie Antoinette’s head to make her understand the plight of the poor. They took it off entirely—and then, like angry children, went on a head-chopping spree before eventually settling into the modern French Republic.

We will have to see how this madness unfolds, for it is already upon us. The end of the Cold War also marks the end of America’s tenure as the empire ruling that Cold War. One thing is certain: the relics of both parties will either retire or perish. Our system may undergo a period of collapse, as all empires do—think Britain in the 1960s or the SOVIET Union in the 1990s. The current president will not last long. He is not made of the same stuff as that infamous really bad German. He is more akin to that guy in the back of a deli in Queens, suddenly elevated to a national level.  He will not last.  We should fear what is coming next.

The collapse of the American Empire will continue to unfold.  We do not yet know what this means.  Does it happen like in France, where the American version of the pied noirs come rushing back?   Do we get the Ottoman collapse, where we are divided up by stronger power?  Is it England with deindustrialization? Will we wind up like the former Soviet Union, having to drink the Chicago School of Economic ideas about the privatization of profits and increase of public debts? (Shhhhh, it is this version methinketh).

While the press sells newspapers… wait, what are those… while the press increases digital subscriptions, analyzing every hand gesture and convincing us we are getting a version of that unpopular German leader, we are far from it now or in the person (or persons to come). 

IMHO, we are neither getting an American king nor a Russian puppet regime.  At least those things we know how to fight. 

Rather we should expect now or soon, a bizarre blend of Thatcher, Yeltsin, and Trujillo to imerge.  That you may not even know that last figure means you should stop looking at hand signals and start reading up on the politics of the Americas —To learn of those who may prove far more effective in steering the nation toward an ahistorical and, therefore, far more dangerous course.