Today is Good Friday and tonight is Passover.  Both traditions mark the arrival of Spring as well as a time of remembrance and tradition.  From the awakening of the world outside to the obligations inside it is a time of joy and reflection.  They are holidays outside of ourselves and the daily pace of life.

Our current world, at least in developed societies, rarely has time for such reflection anymore.  Far too often we are expected to mechanically keep going through our daily slog.  The only antidote offered is selfishness, rebellion and retreat back into our own skin for a few moments of pleasure.  Old holidays based on ghosts do not mean as much as they used to.

That system is obviously not bringing happiness to many people’s lives.  I would like to propose an alternative outlook on life which I will call “extasism”.
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Turn down the Rock and turn up the lights.  Could the party be nearly over for the American Empire?

Beyond a popular doom that seems to grip the social and traditional media in spasms lately, scholars and philosophers have been writing about the decline and fall of empires with increasing frequency lately.  Very few want to say directly that yes, this is the end of the American Empire and you better get used to it.  That would be too direct.  But many are hinting at it in loud stage whispers wended through long articles and books.  Are they on to something?

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