Most Empires in History Fell by Age 250. The US Is at a Weighty Crossroads.

As a veteran of the U.S. war on Afghanistan, I visit high schools on a regular basis to talk about the military. I try to fill in the blanks that military recruiters intentionally ignore. I find that when asked, most students can say very little about the reasons why the U.S. fights. They often wrongly assume that the U.S. fights in self-defense or to protect democracy when in reality the U.S. empire fights to control other countries’ natural resources, topple governments that refuse to submit to the will of U.S. corporations, or maintain spheres of influence in regions it has no right to be in.

Very few teenagers know that most casualties of war are innocent civilians, or that most of those who die at the hands of the U.S. military are desperately poor. Far too many high schoolers across the United States assume that the U.S. military is a force for good in the world, when in reality it nearly always plays the role of the bully. I try to explain all this in a way that doesn’t feel preachy. Most teenagers will do the opposite of what they are told when they don’t feel heard or respected! Regardless, those considering the military after graduation deserve a complete picture of what they are signing up for. No one should kill or die for reasons they don’t fully comprehend.

After my visits to these schools, I often leave lamenting the fact that, too often, young people seem to see joining the military as a default rite of passage. It is hard to know when one is officially an adult in U.S. society, given the atomization and alienation of our hyper-individualized and competitive world. It is difficult to point to any one practice, ritual, or social ceremony that acts as the finish line for childhood. The military becomes a perceived gateway into adulthood for many of us.

The U.S. is 250 years old this July 4. Normally we associate things that are 250 years old with maturity, wisdom, and structural stability — trees, architectural landmarks, giant tortoises. But the U.S. seems anything but mature and stable on its quarter of a millennium birthday. One need only look at our current administration: its impulsive wars, corruption so baked-in it’s become governance, and an inability to admit mistakes. Corporate-sponsored dirt bikes and a cage fight on the front lawn of the White House to celebrate Donald Trump’s birthday — while most people in the U.S. are struggling with inflation and basic survival — is a visual that sums up the immaturity of U.S. leadership nicely.

It’s important to remember that the U.S.’s instability goes much deeper than one administration. A society with such vast wealth inequality can never be stable or democratic. Materialism and consumption will always trump basic human values in such a culture. Unpopular wars will continue to be waged, and important issues such as health care, the climate, and education will be put on the back burner as long as the U.S. is governed by a handful of billionaires like Elon Musk, Miriam Edelson, and Peter Thiel, who purchase morally bankrupt politicians like candy. And yes, both Democrats and Republicans have been captured by these schoolyard bullies dressed as CEOs.

Samuel Arbesman, working at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard, calculated that the average age of an empire before it dies, throughout history, has been about 220 years old. So by empire standards, the U.S. is old. But it’s old in a way that suggests why empires don’t last: they are governed by the short-sighted, selfish, and violently aggressive — adults incapable of making the choices we’d associate with wisdom or maturity. In that regard, the U.S. seems no different than any other empire. The insatiable demands of capitalism and empire have kept most U.S. leaders in a position in which the wisdom of experience and history cannot be applied, for risk of not fulfilling those demands. These are leaders who are incapable of making healthy long-term decisions that will benefit and support humanity both in the U.S. and the rest of the world.

Which takes me back to the young people I speak to in high schools who see the military as a positive pathway into adulthood. More of us need to communicate to them that maturity involves much more than physical growth or strength. Maturity requires an ability to follow your heart and sense of humanity, no matter what family, friends, or society as a whole encourages. Joining the military — particularly a military that is complicit in a genocide or imperial adventures that destroy innocent lives — traps young people in a situation where they often literally cannot develop and express their maturity. I’ve spoken to too many veterans who get stuck in that moment, that day, when they carried out a horrific order. Or watched their friends die in battle. Or stormed into a house they knew they had no right being in and watched children weep from fright or even take their last breath. These U.S. soldiers, who are effectively seen as terrorists by many people across the world, become glued to a nightmarish feedback loop they can’t move on from. They feel like they will never be able to follow their hearts and sense of humanity again, because they can’t trust who they became that one day when they were 18 or 19 years old. None of this is communicated by the military recruiters.

The U.S. is at a crossroads on its 250th birthday. Young people, with noble and honorable intentions, are looking for models to take them into adulthood and help them live their lives with decency and morality. And they are seeing very little in the way of positive examples. If we hope to defy the odds and survive as a species on this burning planet, the impulsive people we’ve elevated into leadership must be replaced by those who know and appreciate the value of human life in all of its diversity.

In recent years we’ve seen millions of people in the U.S. finally come to denounce the genocide being perpetrated against Palestinians by the Israeli military in the name of Zionism. People in the U.S. are rapidly beginning to relearn the vocabulary that identifies exploitation and oppression in their lives — a language that McCarthyism did its best to eradicate. More and more are seeing how racism, anti-immigrant hate, and sexism are used to divide and keep people distracted from oligarchs who are stealing from them. We are rejecting wars ginned up by billionaires and vicious politicians to extend the riches of empire and wipe out any potential challengers. Increasingly, people are once again identifying the failings of capitalism and the predatory nature of empire. There is strong evidence that U.S. society is beginning to grow up in spite of the leadership that is trying to keep it infantilized. A healthier rite of passage for young people is reemerging, and it involves organizing and leading a movement and culture change against the evils of empire. And that is something to celebrate!