CMV: The US is a Crusader State

This is a hard one to put into words, but I’ve recently been reading a lot about the Crusader period of European history and it got me thinking. The US seems to be shaping up to be a Crusader State in the modern world. <br><br>A lot of people talk about the US as an empire, but I don’t think that’s a good comparison. The US doesn’t conquer territory, extract resources, exploit labor, remotely govern from a mother country, or even really exert its influence over its vassals in the same way as the European empires or even ancient empires. The US does exert some influence over its near abroad through institutions and alliances like NATO, but that’s not really the same as what European empires did either. <br><br>I think the US is more similar to the Crusader States of the Middle Ages in several key ways: <br><br>* They were a product of the clash of Christendom and Islam. The US seems to be a product of the clash of modernity/progressivism/liberalism and social conservatism/religion. Both were the result of an ideological vision that sought to expand itself into the world and export certain values. Christianity and American exceptionalism. <br><br>* The Crusader States were formed by a combination of a popular movement of ‘pilgrims’ who were inspired by a call from a distant leader, who saw a holy war as an opportunity to find adventure, expand their personal power, and make personal profit. While not necessarily holy, modern America was founded by a similar group of pilgrims and adventurers. And while the US expansion wasn’t necessarily driven by a single call to holy war, the idea of Manifest Destiny seems to have been widely held. <br><br>* The early Crusader States were governed by warlords and adventurers, who were often at odds with one another. These warlords did not submit to a higher authority, but rather were self-made men who took what they could and governed what they had as they saw fit. They were not beholden to the Church and only really had allegiance to each other insofar as it suited their own interests. The US government does submit to higher authorities inside the nation and out, but the system is generally designed so thatpower is concentrated in the hands of strong personalities. The Constitution and Bill of Rights provides a vision that is somewhat similar to the Church in the Crusader era in that the warlords must at least pretend to be operating under its authority. But in practice, it is a system where the strongest leaders are able to exert their own will and expand their own power as they see fit. <br><br>* The social order of the Crusader States was based on violence and conquest, with the ruling class being made up of warriors who were living on the spoils of war. The US also seems to have a social order based on violence, where its ruling class largely consists of those who are able to profit off of war. Arms manufacturers, Wall Street, politicians who take donations from lobby groups who stand to benefit. <br><br>* The Crusader States were economically parasitic, based on exploiting resources and wealth from conquered territories and trade routes. The US is largely based on a system of credit and finance that skims off the top of the global trade and commerce system. The dollar is the global reserve currency because the US military has maintained the global breadth necessary to secure that status. Banks, private equity, hedge funds, all of these things have a similar parasitic relationship to the global economy that the Crusader States did to the Eastern Mediterranean. <br><br>* The Crusader States were largely based on a social hierarchy of race, with the ruling class being largely made up of Western Europeans who were descended from Frankish Crusaders. This is obviously similar to the US, where the power dynamics are largely determined by race, white supremacy, and the legacy of slavery. <br><br>* The Crusader States were constantly at war, either with the neighboring Muslim States or with each other. The US is similarly always at war, if not with external enemies then with internal ones. The War on Drugs, the War on Terror, etc. <br><br>* The Crusader States were based on a vision of social conservatism, monarchy, Catholicism, and aristocracy. The US seems to be a bastion of social conservatism in a world that is rapidly moving in the direction of progressivism and liberalism. <br><br>* The Crusader States were eventually conquered and destroyed by their enemies. I’m not predicting that the US will meet the same fate, but I do see a lot of similarities.