Abstract
In the comparative study of the decline of ten, and fall of nine Empires, No. 10 being the US Empire, in 1995 (see the Prologue).
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This text was first published in Galtung (2009).
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Johan Galtung, with Tore Heiestad and Erik Rudeng, On the decline and fall of empires: the Roman empire and Western imperialism compared. Oslo: University of Oslo, Chair in Conflict and Peace Research, pp. 71. (Trends in Western civilization program, 15), (Oslo Papers, 75). Also published at: Tokyo: UN University, 1979, pp. 71 (HSDRGPID–l/UNUP–53), and in Immanuel Wallerstein (ed.) Review. New York: Research Foundation of the State University of New York, IV, 1980, 1, pp. 91–154. Condensed version in: Comprendre: revue de politique de la culture, XLIII/XLIV, (1977/1978), pp. 50–59.
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Johan Galtung, with Dag Poleszynski and Erik Rudeng, Norge foran 1980–årene (Norway facing the 1980s). Oslo: Gyldendal, 1980, p. 85.
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Using the theory of spaces (Peace By Peaceful Means, Part IV on Civilization) to identify contradictions we might get
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nature: toxic pollution, lowering the life expectancy,
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human: general anomie, disconnect between norms and action,
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social: nos. 2, 3, 4 and 5 listed,
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world: no. 1 listed,
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time: rigidity, basic change being overdue,
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culture: no. 6 listed, disconnect between myth and reality.
Written this way the similarity to the US Empire configuration becomes more clear; only that in the next chapter the focus is on world, divided by power dimension.
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Which in no way means that all one had to do was to sit and wait till the Soviet Empire imploded. Behind all those six points there is concrete human consciousness, individual or collective action, confrontation, struggle. Vaclav Havel rightly complains (The Japan Times, November 17 2004) that faith in supposed laws of the market and other ‘invisible hands’ that direct our lives reduces the space for individual moral action and social critics to naive moralists or elitists. Havel certainly was one, but the Velvet revolution probably was more an effect of concrete action in East Germany than of internal critique.
Reference
Galtung J (2009) The Fall of the US Empire—And Then What? (TRANSCEND University Press) (www.transcend.org/tup).
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Galtung, J., Fischer, D. (2013). The Soviet Case: Six Contradictions and the US Case: Fifteen Contradictions. In: Johan Galtung. SpringerBriefs on Pioneers in Science and Practice, vol 5. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32481-9_16
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