(Cascadian National University, Lecture Hall, 2517)

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N08cK3aQkiI]

Nice to see the sun come out after that rain this morning. Can we get the slats open in the back and cut the lights please? Thanks. I always like to get some airflow in here if we can.

Now, onto a little class business, I know we're about halfway though and some folks still haven't signed up for the end of the semester projects. I'm not gonna name names... ALL OF YOU... But I did say at your leisure, so this is on me. But I swear if I get 45 improvisational sketches based off Trump the Mad, I will be pretty sure that nobody paid attention in class and just googled it. Googled? It's an American word. It means to spout the cult line without thought.

So, the American Empire was Huge. Big as the British Empire at its height, and stretching to every corner of the globe. So how did a group of small nation-states become a monolithic empire? It's an interesting story, and we have to look at it from the historical overview.

At the time, Slavery was considerably more open than during the height of the American Empire. As a result, when the European states needed a new source of revenue for their newly idle armies to plunder they eagerly eyed the American Continent. The Rulers of the various European kingdoms had found that if they exported their landholding and serf arrangement, using the local population as serfs when possible, they could increase their own share of wealth with minimal work themselves. This feudal mindset would always remain with the American psyche, and would be expressed in their later actions.

When it came to the American Colonies, many wealthy families from England grabbed up as much property and political office as they could. While they were divided in how openly they were to treat the slaves, in general the rulers of the new colonies were united in their desire to do as little work as possible themselves. As a result, Americans were the recipients of largesse from the local tribes, and had no intention of returning the gestures of goodwill. Instead the Americans insisted that expecting courtesy and respect was their privilege and they were not required to return it in any form. This was to go on to be a guiding concept of American culture, the concept of "Rank Hath It's Privilege".

At this point, the British Empire was one of the largest in the world and its corporations were stretching their first steps towards sentience. The nascent American cult leaders in particular were outraged by their personal power being taken by them, and as a result directly challenged corporate power and profit. Of course the corporations leaned hard on their bought politicians, and as a result the issue became one of survival. The Americans were forced to accept either excising the cancer, or having it kill them.

Even in their Revolution, the Americans did as little work as possible. While they will often talk of their bravery they leave out the fact that at many of the largest battles American Partisans would take one shot and run. Admittedly, the guerilla tactics used were eerily similar to those the American Empire would go on to Condemn. In particular, the Part-Time Soldier aspect wherein a colonist would attack the enemy, then pretend to be a loyal citizen the next. While this is a legitimate and moral tactic for anyone facing an invader, it is the American's later condemnation of this behavior when used against them that is striking from a historian's point of view.

Much of the war was carried out by the rival empires to curtail British power. America had made deals to be a neutral in the European wars, as long as the European powers helped them be free. They immediately reneged on these deals after the war, under "Technicalities" which became a hallmark of American diplomacy. The immediate breaking of all treaties. While this is nothing new, and is often the behavior of Empires, the immediateness of the transformation into Empire mentality after professing that of Republic was stunningly fast.

America began expanding to the west, taking land under legal technicalities whenever outright theft or annexation wasn't possible. This brought them into direct conflict with other empires who were also attempting to grab up as much land as possible that had not yet been brought under Imperial rule. This was also the point at which a bitter internal war was fought as the north saw its first corporate cults take power. They in turn began reconstructing the rest of the country into their image.

Many refugees from the war fled west, which of course brought them into conflict with the native peoples. American ethics simply did not mesh with those of the natives and as a result their culture forced the tribes into smaller and smaller areas, all the while claiming that they were lazy and worthless for failing to properly be cult members. Of course, the American Cults were always ready to back up their members with soldiers, and as a result it was very rare for much resistance to be offered. When it was, Americans would turn their propaganda machine to spreading word of the exaggerated atrocity in order to encourage supposed wolf cult members to deal with the matters. Bear Cult members nearly gained a huge swath of land in the west before they made a deal with the American cults to be subsumed in the greater empire.

So, when America hit the coast... They started swimming. At the height of their power, the Americans were Growing constantly. That was a absolute goal of all American Corporate Cults, Political Cults, and Religious Cults. More members, more profit, more. Growth of a scale that can only be compared to cancer.

The growth of America was riddled with cancer. America Grew large, but stuck nearly every bit of resources into the profit growths. Arteries of commerce were abandoned as the Corporate entities realized that they did not have to grow anything but themselves. The corporations had truly at this point become fully sentient. It affected the mind of the Empire, as the cancer took from the imagination and the arts with banal and cheap entertainment that grew in scale and illusion. The body of the state rotted as the bare minimum of effort was put into feeding it. The people were expected to give More and More to feed the cults.

And they went everywhere. Corporate entities grew, multiplied. They fed off each other, mimicked each other, and fed off each other as their cults grew. They used American soldiers as any king might use an arm. If the arm objected, there were always others that would obey. However, Corporations were not human and had no conscience. As a result the deaths were meaningless. Written off with a few decimal points moved on an accounting table. Often no human ever was to be involved in the process if possible.

Every continent. If they weren't directly under the control of the American Empire, they were paying fealty to them. Those few that did not, like Persia, were treated as pariahs, their cults mocked and vilified, and their attempts to resist seen as proof of insanity. They would use their military to cow the populace and impose their own corporate cult leaders. If you didn't pay fealty to the American Corporate Cults, you were to be made to pay fealty. As long as they saw their cut, the corporations were happy to even see slavery openly practiced again, without the polite illusions of American society.

The stories of the Empire went everywhere. Their propaganda was in every household, and the most meaningless activities were elevated to heights unheard of. Could you imagine a single person given the same resources as 400 workers for simply playing magic numbers? The Americans thought that was just fine. So you future mathematicians, I have my eye on you. Remember... slide rules don't kill people... people kill people...

Sorry, little joke, which will lead into my lecture, which is a elaboration on of one of the other American Exports. Weapons of War.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH9FyLsfDzw]