I return a lot to de Romilly’s observation in her book on Thucydides, where the end-state of imperial politics is inability to coexist because that requires constraint, and disaffected imperial citizens wed their ego to the state’s imperial power and experience its constraint as a loss of freedom.

March 19, 2026 - 12:11 UTC

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It’s similar to and often overlaps with features of fascism, but it’s a distinct thing. Empire brings a sense of pride and power even to people who gain no material benefit, but those people cannot separate recognition that the state’s freedom to act is not limitless from personal disempowerment.
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So late empire becomes defined by children of empire, who have been psychologically stunted by empire as an answer to childish frustration and anger, gaining power and winding up at war with reality because they react with defiance to the mere suggestion of compromise or restraint.
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I’d couple this with Toni Morrison’s musing in the American Narcissus, where the only exceptional thing about the US is the way it has bred a destructive selfishness into its citizens under the guise of ‘ultimate personal freedom’, making liberty a per-person gift instead of a societal structure.
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