>>Someone, alot smarter than me, recently pointed out that the American Empire is just an extension of the British Empire. While the British Empire declined the American one rose, its actually reasonable to just view them as one in the same.
>
>I would not call that person smarter than you. In fact, I would call him uninformed. Look at the the actions of the U.S. overseas - good and bad - and look at the history of the once British Empire and there is no comparison.

Things are definitely more politically correct these days, I'll agree with that. But I don't think that affects the main thesis.

My personal opinion is that all Empires are the result of a single meme - an idea, sort of like a virus of the mind - and one after another empires arose and declined a result of previous actions of previous empires which were themselves a result of the meme.

But thats a little more abstract than it is useful. :-)