Great essay. The analogy of the Aztec empire with our current moment is interesting, although not one I would have thought of necessarily. It’s such a tragic and interesting story, and Malinche in particular is a complex character. In a way it’s kind of similar to the question you sort of posed in your last essay-if she could have seen the ramifications of her actions, justifiable as they may have been in a personal level for her, would she still do it, knowing how instrumental and invaluable her work as a translator was? You could make a case that Cortez would have found another way to recruit the Tlaxcallans, but she certainly was a big contributor to the doom of her countrymen, as it were.
So if there are any eager fifth columnists in the right or left in America, is this a cautionary tale for them? Here’s where the analogy breaks down a little bit, since at the moment we don’t face a foreign existential threat like Cortez at our doorstep, but I’m sure there are plenty of aggrieved parties on both sides who think their work to hasten the demise of the American system would be positive, but we don’t know what would come after, of course. Could be a lot, lot worse.
I see the Department of Defense maintaining its current biggest carbon foot print I believe for any corporate entity in the US. I see suburbs and all their downsides persisting for the hundred years that natural gas and methane can be fracked out of those pockets. 50 percent is a meaningful number. If the momentum to change the constitution in the least way_ toward ranked choice voting? No, impossible...maybe simply vacating the electoral college? The ERA again? If the 50 plus was there, then the diceyness of change seems present. People here look like they belong to their cars, I draw a straight line like a highway to the future in which the raw entropy that a planet of gas fuming plastic eggs can land in, eventually, might raise a shout from some fated nomads stopped to water t goats. That is presently a hidden whaddya callit: dynamic.
"A child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth" is so poignant. Makes me think of school shooters -- obviously a more complicated issue than any one reason, but we can't deny that kids who think there is something valuable in the world for them, who feel seen and held by their community, wouldn't turn on their own like that.
A great take on the current situation. So many have been frozen out of what America was supposed to promise, it’s no wonder the grass looks greener elsewhere. Few things are as dangerous as a frustrated idealist, which is what I consider myself to be. I can only imagine being someone who never even experienced the little tail end of the functional society like I did.
The rage felt by the young here and now is entirely understandable. The rage felt towards this country by people in the 1960s, not so much; they had everything handed to them in a silver platter and still wanted to destroy it for everyone else after getting there—and they wrecked this country beyond anyone’s wildest dreams with their unjustified rage. One can only imagine the power and transformative/destructive effect this *justified* rage.
> slavery and subjugation that would dwarf what they suffered under Aztec rule
I’m not sure this proposition is supportable. The Aztecs were probably the most evil empire the world has ever seen. I’m not sure that anything the Spanish did, much of it horrifying, can hold a candle to the depravity of the Aztecs.
The Aztecs were psychopathic in how they treated subjugated nations. The Spanish were tempered somewhat by Christianity, but still carried out slavery and other forms of economic exploitation on a scale the Aztecs could only dream of.
It’s hard to exactly quantify which party was better or worse, and I am content to leave it at “The Aztecs and Conquistadors deserved one another.”
Agreed -- this is one of those "who was worse, the Czar or the Communists" arguments. Wasn't that the tag line for some monster vs. monster movie? "Whoever wins, we all lose"?
"On October 7th, 2023, there was an attack in Tel Aviv, Israel, where Hamas terrorists killed 1,189 people"
Sincerely, please try to figure out how many were killed by Hamas in direct action and how many were killed by Israeli response to the idea that there were hostages taken. They were not all killed by Hamas.
Great essay. The analogy of the Aztec empire with our current moment is interesting, although not one I would have thought of necessarily. It’s such a tragic and interesting story, and Malinche in particular is a complex character. In a way it’s kind of similar to the question you sort of posed in your last essay-if she could have seen the ramifications of her actions, justifiable as they may have been in a personal level for her, would she still do it, knowing how instrumental and invaluable her work as a translator was? You could make a case that Cortez would have found another way to recruit the Tlaxcallans, but she certainly was a big contributor to the doom of her countrymen, as it were.
So if there are any eager fifth columnists in the right or left in America, is this a cautionary tale for them? Here’s where the analogy breaks down a little bit, since at the moment we don’t face a foreign existential threat like Cortez at our doorstep, but I’m sure there are plenty of aggrieved parties on both sides who think their work to hasten the demise of the American system would be positive, but we don’t know what would come after, of course. Could be a lot, lot worse.
Fantastic commentary. It is going to be a very interesting election. I put 50% odds the "empire" will not survive it.
I see the Department of Defense maintaining its current biggest carbon foot print I believe for any corporate entity in the US. I see suburbs and all their downsides persisting for the hundred years that natural gas and methane can be fracked out of those pockets. 50 percent is a meaningful number. If the momentum to change the constitution in the least way_ toward ranked choice voting? No, impossible...maybe simply vacating the electoral college? The ERA again? If the 50 plus was there, then the diceyness of change seems present. People here look like they belong to their cars, I draw a straight line like a highway to the future in which the raw entropy that a planet of gas fuming plastic eggs can land in, eventually, might raise a shout from some fated nomads stopped to water t goats. That is presently a hidden whaddya callit: dynamic.
*insert slow fucking clap
"A child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth" is so poignant. Makes me think of school shooters -- obviously a more complicated issue than any one reason, but we can't deny that kids who think there is something valuable in the world for them, who feel seen and held by their community, wouldn't turn on their own like that.
Banger of an essay all around, well done.
well, shit
A great take on the current situation. So many have been frozen out of what America was supposed to promise, it’s no wonder the grass looks greener elsewhere. Few things are as dangerous as a frustrated idealist, which is what I consider myself to be. I can only imagine being someone who never even experienced the little tail end of the functional society like I did.
The rage felt by the young here and now is entirely understandable. The rage felt towards this country by people in the 1960s, not so much; they had everything handed to them in a silver platter and still wanted to destroy it for everyone else after getting there—and they wrecked this country beyond anyone’s wildest dreams with their unjustified rage. One can only imagine the power and transformative/destructive effect this *justified* rage.
> slavery and subjugation that would dwarf what they suffered under Aztec rule
I’m not sure this proposition is supportable. The Aztecs were probably the most evil empire the world has ever seen. I’m not sure that anything the Spanish did, much of it horrifying, can hold a candle to the depravity of the Aztecs.
The Aztecs were psychopathic in how they treated subjugated nations. The Spanish were tempered somewhat by Christianity, but still carried out slavery and other forms of economic exploitation on a scale the Aztecs could only dream of.
It’s hard to exactly quantify which party was better or worse, and I am content to leave it at “The Aztecs and Conquistadors deserved one another.”
Agreed -- this is one of those "who was worse, the Czar or the Communists" arguments. Wasn't that the tag line for some monster vs. monster movie? "Whoever wins, we all lose"?
"On October 7th, 2023, there was an attack in Tel Aviv, Israel, where Hamas terrorists killed 1,189 people"
Sincerely, please try to figure out how many were killed by Hamas in direct action and how many were killed by Israeli response to the idea that there were hostages taken. They were not all killed by Hamas.