WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH ALL THIS FUTURE?

There will be Life After Empire. We will make it so. Join us.

We cannot live in the old ways. They cannot rule in the old ways.

We can no longer assume the continuity of the grand imperial bargain — namely, the coercive transfer of value from subordinated groups (poor states and regions, oppressed nationalities, women, farmers, etc.) to private owners specifically and advanced economies generally, in a world carved up by competing financial factions. 

The global imbalances wrought by this system are enforced by state and non-state violence, and naturalized through culture and identity formation. Social resentments, national oppression, the subjugation of women, and other forms of entitlement are the social costs of this system of profit-seeking at a global scale — this empire.

This way of life, our existing default, is empire — a system of profit-seeking at a global scale facilitated by institutions that super-concentrate resources and decision-making into the hands of the few while externalizing life-threatening costs and consequences onto the many. 

Empire is not a life-sustaining system. Our lives are defined by empire, yet empire threatens life itself. This is a problem of governance. Our political process of social problem-solving and opportunity-generation is based on a set of interests and incentives at a global scale that continue to deepen the multiple, overlapping existential threats facing human society. We cannot live in these old ways.

The existing ruling class, with its commitment to maintaining the existing order amid increasingly disruptive contradictions, has become unmoored and volatile. 

Across the classes, much of the intellectual infrastructure and the social institutions capable of developing political leadership and governing capacity are in crisis, non-existent, or increasingly viewed as illegitimate. The political parties, churches, universities, police, and virtually any other institution imaginable are all facing this challenge. A way out has yet to materialize. As a result, the basic prospect of social governance, even in nations with advanced economies, has become untenable.

We must take up the responsibility to forge a collective future.

We need to break free and unite people in the millions to reject empire and step away from certain oblivion. We can and must imagine a global social order based on liberation. 

Life after empire is not guaranteed; we must imagine it. 

Free the land.

Free love.

Free socialism.

Now is the time for the people to govern in a new way. 

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After Empire is a partisan think tank and cultural institute dedicated to resolving the big contradictions of our shared world and advancing social life beyond the exploitation, degradation, and exclusion fostered by imperialism. After Empire seeks to unite with all people who desire a liberated society.