what we've learned ...

  .. is an horrifying[1] shocker ...

    .. and US hubris was the last nail

-=*=-

G'day Bob,

to your point at which the empire crumbled (a real bewdy), I would add:

December 12 / 14, 2008
What is to be Done?
The End of the Washington Consensus

  «Wall Street’s financial meltdown marks the end of an era. What has ended is the credibility of the Washington Consensus - open markets to foreign investors and tight money austerity programs (high interest rates and credit cutbacks) to "cure" balance-of-payments deficits, domestic budget deficits and price inflation. On the negative side, this model has failed to produce the prosperity it promises. Raising interest rates and dismantling protective tariffs and subsidies worsen rather than help the trade and payments balance, aggravate rather than reduce domestic budget deficits, and raise prices.»
[counterpunch/Hudson & Sommers]

Economics are indistinguishable from the military, when it comes to discussing the so-called, self-termed 'world leader,' the US. It turns out that the only place the US is leading us is to rack and ruin, aka right down the gurgler.

Today is as good a day as any (i.e. bitter-sweet) to draw a line, although as the King Canute myth has it, life will (must) go on.

To make 3 Hs, add hypocrisy; say one thing and do another. Possibly the very worst, is to have (realistic!) expectations dashed. The expectations I 'carried' out of child-hood were, quickly summarised, truth and justice. From 'Bringing up Baby:' "Don't tell me lies!" - "You will share that (object) - or trouble!" Simplistic? Perhaps, but we're going for brevity here.

Less simplistic would be that the Enlightenment would show us the way.

Wrong!

Did not, does not. What we have are lies, cheating theft and murder.

-=*=-

Consider so-called representative democracy, an informed and engaged electorate votes, the elected representatives then rule (wisely!); of the people, by the people and for the people.

Wrong!

As actually implemented, the people are deliberately dumbed-down (they are lied to and effectively turned into sheople®), the representatives fail to properly represent; the systems are pre-set to ever further enrich mostly evil, vested interests.

I mentioned above the very worst being dashed expectations; the very worst failure in our so-called democracies are the lies, aka swamping us in deliberately, psychologically designed, evil propaganda, what I call the pushed paradigm. Many electorates, pioneered in the US but adopted more widely in the Anglo/Judaic sphere and further, have been deliberately deceived - the exact, designed purpose of the lies they tell us. As we found out from Howard, "All politicians lie!" - well, perhaps not exactly all, and none quite so badly as that grim example, but it's not just the politicians; the mostly corrupt and venal MSM transmits and often amplifies the lies. (Even 'our' AusBC and SBS get into the lie-transmission/amplification act; boo! Hiss!)

-=*=-

It has been said that GWBush&Co were/are incompetent, that had they done a better job, they could've 'won' in Iraq (murder for oil), say, or in Afghanistan (murder for a pipeline.) IMHO wrong; GWBush&Co were following a filthy, neocon/neoliberal agenda which specifically set out to rip ever more of the world's resources off, and to allocate the plunder to the already obscenely rich, mostly US fat-cats, and at the same time to drive the ordinary people of the world (including their own!) into penury, forcing them into a Malthusian hell. This was well-illustrated just the other day, when the US Senate refused to bailout the US auto industry, on the grounds that the UAW wouldn't agree to a drastic slashing of wages/conditions. When correctly gauged, GWBush&Co made great strides in their agenda. One other thing, it is/was not only GWBush&Co, the rot has permeated the US for yonks, hardly a US president has anywhere near clean hands. One could say none.

The problem - and possibly our salvation - is that GWBush&Co performed sooo badly, that the rest of the world (well, some of us, we the truth-seekers) noticed. And when the enemy (the wannabe hegemon, its illegitimate sprog, the poodle with dag) are recognised, diagnosed, seen for what they truly are and the ghastly, murdering criminal things they do, then plans can be made to counter that enemy.

-=*=-

The Beatles wrote "And, in the end, the love you take - Is equal to the love you make."

Q: What did the US make, with Israel as the illegitimate 2nd fiddle (and especially in the case of Iraq, the UK as poodle with Aus as dag?)

A: Lies, cheating theft and murder.

-=*=-

Fazit: Reform the systems, save the planet - or doom.

-=*end*=-

PS In plain text: Our so-called 'leaders,' our so-called 'betters,' have turned the world on its head. Instead of leading us to maximise human happiness, the best deal for the most people, they have worked almost exclusively to enrich themselves - essentially by crooked means (i.e. not 'fair prices' but what (the max) the market will bear, 'super' profits aka resource-rent, a swinish list of foul malfeasance), right up to and including murder for spoil (Iraq, ex-Palestine), all the while encouraging the devil to take the hindmost. A ghastly proof is the 'health' system in the US, which will bankrupt people and/or outright deny (unfunded) necessary life-saving treatment. In order for these villains to enrich themselves, they have deliberately deceived us, a truly filthy - treasonous - thing to do.

-=*=-

Ref(s):

[1] horrify
verb (-ies, -ied) [with OBJ.] (usu. be horrified) fill with horror; shock greatly: they were horrified by the very idea | [as ADJ.] (horrified) the horrified spectators | [as ADJ.] (horrifying) a horrifying incident.
DERIVATIVES
horrification noun
horrifiedly adverb
horrifyingly adverb [as SUBMODIFIER] horrifyingly flimsy boats.

ORIGIN late 18th cent.: from Latin horrificare, from horrificus (see HORRIFIC). [Oxford Pop-up]

horrify

Øverb
1 she loved to horrify us with tales of ghastly happenings
FRIGHTEN, scare, terrify, petrify, alarm, panic, terrorize, scare stiff, scare to death, fill with fear, scare someone out of their wits, scare the living daylights out of, throw into a panic, make someone's hair stand on end, make someone's blood run cold; informal scare the pants off, make someone's hair curl; Brit. informal throw into a blue funk, put the wind up; Irish informal scare the bejesus out of; N. Amer. informal spook; vulgar slang scare shitless, scare the shit out of; archaic affright

2 Lucien was horrified by her remarks, but said nothing
SHOCK, appal, disconcert, take aback, confound, dismay, outrage, scandalize, offend, throw off balance; disgust, revolt, repel, nauseate, sicken; informal rattle, faze, knock sideways, knock for six; archaic pother.
See AWKWARD SYNONYMS at dismay.
-opposite(s): PLEASE. [New Oxford Thesaurus of English]