The history of an empire is one of dramatic conflict
Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2025 7:55 am
Limits to imperial expansion are logistical, not theoretical. An empire implies permanent war although it often brings peace, war in the broadest sense of the term, war for control of resources, control of markets, trade war, psychological war, sex war, race war, population war, financial war, the war to win hearts and minds, war for the soul... It does not grow without meeting resistance. It must be so, for "the end of conflict is the end of the universe" (Michael Spletzer) and if we accept Thomas Hobbes' axiom that "the world (the whole mass of things that are) is corporal, that is to say, body;..
That which is not body is no part of the universe," then an understanding of empire is a key to an understanding of the universe. True, the more we are religious the more we may wish to reject this as atheistic, but even the religious ontology renders a historical account of our species which draws deeply on comparison with and reference to, very job function email list material conflicts. The religious rejection of conflict, notably in Buddhism, is a rejection of individual human existence, that is to say, life as we know it, which is tantamount to accepting Hobbes' axiom and drawing a different conclusion. The other challenge to history as history of conflict, notably in the writings of.
Marx and recently in Fukuyama, has rested on the argument that a given type of social organization will work so harmoniously, be so perfect, that mass conflict and certainly the conflicts of empires will be abolished, this perfect universal and just civilization brings with it "the end of history": but this is exactly what all imperialists preach. Noone is ever more passionate in predicting or proclaiming the end of history than an imperialist. It is disarming to be told by your imperialist enemy that you are "historically condemned" but nothing is historically condemned in itself since all is a matter of the will to achieve and use power.
That which is not body is no part of the universe," then an understanding of empire is a key to an understanding of the universe. True, the more we are religious the more we may wish to reject this as atheistic, but even the religious ontology renders a historical account of our species which draws deeply on comparison with and reference to, very job function email list material conflicts. The religious rejection of conflict, notably in Buddhism, is a rejection of individual human existence, that is to say, life as we know it, which is tantamount to accepting Hobbes' axiom and drawing a different conclusion. The other challenge to history as history of conflict, notably in the writings of.
Marx and recently in Fukuyama, has rested on the argument that a given type of social organization will work so harmoniously, be so perfect, that mass conflict and certainly the conflicts of empires will be abolished, this perfect universal and just civilization brings with it "the end of history": but this is exactly what all imperialists preach. Noone is ever more passionate in predicting or proclaiming the end of history than an imperialist. It is disarming to be told by your imperialist enemy that you are "historically condemned" but nothing is historically condemned in itself since all is a matter of the will to achieve and use power.