Most American citizens do not recognize this American Empire we inhabit, but if pressed, they might admit, “Well, we have some soft control and economic dominance, but it’s not really like an empire.”

These folks shy away from any admission that the USA and the West run the world, that we do possess a global empire. At the same time, one of America’s greatest strengths resides in our remaining (vast) wilderness areas (Cole quotation, below).

When reviewing Jonah Goldberg’s 2018 book “Suicide of the West,” I could understand this conservative pundit mourning our loss of common western social values; we’ve lost sight of “the fundamental nature of our Euro-American civilization.”

The terms western culture, Euro-American and Western Civilization fill the air while demagogues deploy them to fog our minds and make us low-information political zombies.

Their slick emphases on single-issue and conspiracy-driven topics help the authoritarians and billionaire-oligarcho-bros to manipulate the masses via tribalism and identity politics.

Goldberg correctly noted how the core values of our liberal democratic order are now right out in the open and hotly debated.

Whenever I look over the list of recent history tomes I’ve bought, the terms empire, West, and civilization often dominate.

A few titles plucked from my wooden shelf of recent acquisitions include “Spirits of Empire — How Settler Colonialism Made American Religion” (2026), “The West — A New History in 14 Lives” (2023), “Habits of Empire — A History of American Expansion” (2008), “The West — The History of an Idea” (2025), and there are countless more examples of the pundits’ obsession with the West and wildness vs. civilization.

But with our ubiquitous screens and internet media, most Americans have become fully aware that there are 8 billion of us and, therefore, our complex global systems have become frail indeed.

British historian Niall Ferguson’s much derided “Colossus: The Price of America’s Empire” openly backed the idea of a global empire. He wrote in 2004: “I am fundamentally in favor of empire.”

I believe this preoccupation with empire, and cosmopolitan civilization and The West reveals our own epoch’s enormous collective fear: Everything around us is about to collapse. NATO is crumbling.

What happens if, for example, the Straits of Hormuz become permanently blocked? What happens if crazier right-wing Russians depose Vladimir Putin and decide to nuke Kyiv, Warsaw or Frankfurt?

How can “the world” muddle through with increasingly vicious wars all around — Iraq (2003), Gaza, Ukraine, Iran (2025 and 2026) and China now greedily coveting Taiwan?

Many historical time periods have focused on their impending expiration — the imperial Romans constantly worried about their downfall. The postmodern obsession with the collapse of our entire civilization still feels remarkable, since we deny we are running an empire and have forgotten about the nearby wildernesses.

According to Goldberg in 2018, the so-called “suicide of the West” began with too much focus on nationalism, tribalism and populism.

Unprovoked military attacks on Venezuela and Iran certainly weaken our American Empire, and Danish and Nordic tourists are NOT flocking to Solvang and Santa Barbara anymore.

An original “American” strength was simply the extensive wildernesses embedded within our vast North American land mass.

Nineteenth-century Romantic painter Thomas Cole wrote, “The most distinctive, and perhaps the most impressive, characteristic of American scenery is its wildness.”

The presence of these wilderness zones should remind us of Henry David Thoreau’s famous line: “In wildness is the preservation of the world.”

Santa Barbara readers know that we have five federal “wilderness” zones around us that total more than 500,000 acres (inside the 1.9 million-acre Los Padres National Forest; see 4.1.1.)

When most of us deny our status as a leading world empire today, how can we come together to tackle our global problems?

Recent federal efforts to allow roads and development inside our national forests and parks reveal little understanding of the true importance of Cole’s wildness.

How can the tech-bro oligarchy place such ginormous resources and funds into ventures that do not begin to address climate change (like crypto), don’t assist the strapped cities or workers trapped therein, and don’t even aspire to heal our shared earth?

Instead, the feds have been trying to commercially “develop” our essential wild lands.

Despite our outside challenges, we may also be committing cultural “suicide” by ignoring our public schools, where we desperately need more hours of direct face-to-face teaching.

Instead, our kids endure suffocating edu-tech devices and endless hours facing tiny screens. Public schools need more music and art instruction, more science education, and enhanced outdoor time and sports.

When our focus is on fear of losing our unacknowledged empire, we make very poor imperial decisions, such as allowing Benjamin Netanyahu to talk us into waging outright war on Iran.

Unconscious denial of our western global empire helps us defer the responsibilities of global power. Our repressed guilt prevents us from addressing critical social reforms needed in affordable housing, public transportation, childcare, public education and support for the elderly.

A righteous global empire in Ferguson’s sense would offer a huge advantage by mounting a united human effort to combat global climate change. Why not a new “Manhattan Project” to save our Mother Earth?

Goldberg brought home to us the importance of having essential debates about “the West” and the fundamental nature of our Euro-American civilization.

While many of us fail to recognize our “America” as the reckless Empire it has become, most of the rest of the world sees us in an ugly imperial context. They have experienced bewilderment at our current leader’s war-making and populist style and refuse to join in our unpredictable wars on various other lands.

As a people, we need to define what “the West” is and prove that we mean to protect the world’s remaining wilderness zones as preserves for our recreation. We should also guard natural habitats for the myriad non-human species who are affected by our uncontrolled expansion.

A local example reported by Noozhawk’s Daniel Green highlights Sable Offshore Corp.’s outrageous request asking that the Trump administration use “eminent domain” to seize part of our Gaviota State Park as a part of a bogus “West Coast strategic petroleum reserve.”

Wandering in a nearby federal wilderness with my friend Louis, we recently found a hidden treasure crucial for soul and spiritual development: Compare my lead photograph with his exquisite shot in Noozhawk on July 8 here.

4.1.1.

I reviewed Goldberg’s book for Noozhawk here. The subtitle for “Suicide of the West” reads: “How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, and Nationalism iI Destroying American Democracy.” Goldberg thinks that our imperial Western civilization is collapsing by “committing suicide” as we abandon the ideals of liberal democracy for populist tribalism, but he also adds “and democratic capitalism.” I see external forces also hammering our U.S. Empire, especially from China and Russia as well as runaway artificial intelligence.

The Thomas Cole quote is from J. Schulte Nordholt’s “The Myth of the West — America as the Last Empire” (1995), p. 127. The Thoreau quote is from his essay “Walking.” The five wildernesses are San Rafael, Sespe, Chumash, Matilija and Dick Smith.