to live in ravello

On Lateline this evening, Gore Vidal proposed that the end of the American Empire was nigh but that it would come to a grinding halt at great cost to itself and the world. The end, he elaborated, would come about through the effective bankruptcy of the nation via bankrolling its many [military] theatres in tandem with a general vote of no-confidence in the financial markets of the world.

I must admit that while this thought did cross my mind when Bush and Co. delivered the budget recently, allocating one of the more grotesque figures ever seen to the insatiable war machine, I hadn't pursued it any further. Trust the razor-sharp mind of Vidal to trigger reflection.

Vidal was visibly upset by such a forecast, as we should all be, but I can't help think that never more than now is it more important that lessons are learnt.