Italian Diplomat in New Book: How the USA Breaks Up...
The thought of Donald Trump entering the White House triggers dark thoughts in
many minds. But the Italian diplomat and former ambassador Giuseppe Cassini
(also a contributor to several newspapers) wrote his book La 17a agenzia.
L’America al bivio: recuperare o recidere le gloriose radici pre-imperiali
("The 17th agency. America at the crossroad: to recover or sever the glorious
pre-imperial roots") long before the US primary elections.
On March 7th he presented the book at the Italian Culture Institute in
Stockholm, interviewed by Italy's ambassador to Sweden, Ms Elena Basile. It was
a very interesting evening, and though the auditorium was only 2/3rds filled
there were some notables in the audience, including ambassadors from Spain,
Colombia and Palestine and a former Swedish minister (Mats Hellström).
Interview and Q&A's lasted for nearly two hours.
To put it short Mr Cassini said that all "empires" crumble and break up.
"There have been 68 empires in world history, depending on how you count," he
said. "And all have declined and fallen. We have Rome, the Mongol Empire, the
British Empire and so on... Even Sweden had an empire in the 17th Century,
grabbing most around the Baltic Sea and parts of northern Germany. They
overstretch their resources and fall apart."
His book is an alternate history, party fiction, party essays. His scenario
includes:
- Texas claims independence, for tax reasons, and becomes once again a true
Lone Star State.
- Vermont and Maine joins Quebec as autonomous provinces of Canada
- Alaska is bought by a Russian multi-billionaire oligarch.
- Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado forms a Hispanic federation.
- "Bible belt" states form their own federation.
- Florida joins Puerto Rico and post-communist Cuba, to become a tax haven.
- The original 13 in New England and seven Great Lake states form their
federation with Philadelphia and Chicago as east and west capitals.
You can read an English summary here:
http://www.ambsofia.esteri.it/NR/rdonlyres/58AE99FB-5C53-49C8-A366-AAB266FC00F0/95254/AbstractofthebookThe17thAgency.pdf
The title of the book, The 17th Agency, refers to that there are 16 US
agencies engaged in security and intelligence collection. The fictional 17th
would be a secret one that we are unaware of.
That president Obama is killed In this fictional expose, starts things
rolling:
"June 2016. The president, back from a short mission to Kabul, makes a
stopover at a secluded base in Iraq to greet the small military contingent he
had dispatched there to help fight the ISIS. ... There Obama shall meet his
tragic and unjust fate; there he shall pay the price (the Koranic dia) for the
blood, which was shed during the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. The actual
masterminds (the 17 th Agency?) will never be discovered. ... Obama’s death
throws the USA into mayhem. The vice-president takes power but fails to
stabilize the country. The interests of individual States prevail. No clause in
the Constitution provides that the Union shall be indissoluble: if a State
deems itself better off by going on its own, it will break away. The
dissolution of the Federal Covenant ensues."
Mr Cassini sees ten inherent, centrifugal forces in America, behind these
speculations:
1. Militarism.
2. Endemic violence.
3. Turbo-capitalism.
4. Social disparities.
5. Religious manichaeism.
6. Racism.
7. Environmental emergency.
8. Health care emergency.
9. Consumerism.
10. Populism.
These plagues, as he calls them, were discussed in some detail, too much to
be summarised here. I talked a bit with Giuseppe Cassini afterwards and he had
read some other alternate history works, eg Philip Roth (isolationist Charles
Lindbergh becomes president in The Plot Againts America) but not Philip K
Dick's The Man in the High Castle (Germany and Japan wins WWII and divides the
USA). Speculating about possible political developments is something that
interests him.
But one should be cautious when speculating about the future. History has an
annoying habit of being a non-linear unpredictable system. America has after
all already survived one civil war (1861-65) and a president's death in
connection (the assassination of Lincoln) under extremely serious
circumstances. The EU, with straggling economics, refugees and many populist
forces are in more dire straits that the USA at present. What we see now is no
way near the 1860's American drama or the 1990's one when the Soviet Union
dissolved.
--Ahrvid
Ps. På engelska, så kan texten brukas på annat håll också.
Pps. För den som kan italienska:
http://www.esteri.it/mae/it/sala_stampa/archivionotizie/approfondimenti/stoccolma-libri-giuseppe-cassini.html
http://www.rondine.org/it/tutte-le-news/549-“la-17ª-agenzia”-presentazione-del-libro-di-giuseppe-cassini.html
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