The Mechanisms of Empire: From Generation to Generation

In the West, there persists a great reluctance to truly even just talk about the carnage that previous generations have wrought. This is because current generations benefit from the exploitative systems — parasitic, even, we would say — that have been built relying on the results of that carnage, and continue to maintain their roles as oppressors, bequeathed to them by their predecessors.

Each new generation of parasites reaps from the carnage that the previous generations have wrought.

For example, previous generations in the West unleashed war on my people in Việt Nam. My people's country has been left so impoverished after more than a century of brutal colonialism and repression, and after decades more of war and suffering, that the average wage there is about $5 USD a day.

My people come to these Western countries looking for better work or a better life. Others fled as refugees in the midst or aftermath of war.

They first come as fruit-pickers, seamsters or seamstresses, and work in nail shops. They feed their oppressors, clothe them, and beautify them for their parties.

These Western countries have so much wealth only because of the carnage they unleash.

For the settler colonies, especially like Australia and Israel at the bottom of the barrel, the current generations live off the land that was stolen from indigenous peoples by their predecessors.

For other ongoing examples, the U.S. occupies Syrian oil fields. It has stolen more than $100 billion worth of oil, after oppressing Syria with not just sanctions but violence.

It cannot think to merely trade with Syria for its oil.

That might make them equals. No, no.

Because in the mindset of the colonial powers, why should you pay someone for something that you could take at gunpoint?

This is similar with the U.K. and British Petroleum having occupied Iraqi oil fields, after the utterly despicable and atrocious invasion of Iraq.

So not only have the oppressed had lives of loved ones taken from them, or loved ones maimed, their own land and resources are used to fuel the luxuries of the occupying nations.

In the case of oil, it is used to make the cars and trucks run. Others die so Westerners can go on fun weekend trips and travel about poorly-designed metropolises for work.

Then it comes to the next generation of children of the oppressed, who grow up in the West.

These children grow up believing the filthy lies of empire, integrating into and perpetuating the system that wrought carnage on their forebears.

They acquire the language of the creative intelligentsia. Growing up, they seem to know no troubles except for unruly gangs on the news, or maybe having to pay just a little too much taxes here and there if they've been particularly obedient (and obnoxious). Constant unrest around the world is just – *sips coffee that was borne of exploitation* – a reminder of how lucky we are to be here. (And of course, we are actually responsible for that "unrest".)

But not for me.

Let this empire be damned. And let me assist my fellow comrades in piercing it and pioneering the way for its downfall.

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the U.S. had stolen more than $200 billion worth of oil from Syria. The corrected amount is over $100 billion.