rinsemiddlebliss

A photo of of a chain-link fence with a partly faded sign that says Danger and all the text about the nature of the danger is illegible. Behind the chain-link fence, decaying buildings and the sky.

All empires end

by AK Krajewska

ALLEMPIRESEND. All one word like that. Version two of what was meant to be a continuing expansion from a sketch watercolor I made in August has been pinned to my fridge for months. Even though it's a work in progress, or a partial work, I like it more and more as it hangs there. I like the message and I like having it up even though it's a work in progress. I mean, really, what isn't?

It reminds me of that great quote from Ursula K. Le Guin:

"We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words."

Le Guin argues something a bit more hopeful, that all this can change, and can change for the better, if we imagine and work towards a better world.

A photo of a beach, looking inland with trees and a building in the background. A small figure on the beach is writing something on the sand with her bare toe.

A woman in a red coat writes in the sand with her bare toe.

When I went to Angel Island last December, a group of young people were on the beach, dressed for December but barefoot, you might even say frolicking. Certainly, they seemed to be in good spirits. One of them wore a magnificent red coat, and with her bare toe, wrote a message in the sand in large letters.

And what she wrote was, "All empires end."[1] It's a statement of fact. All things end. Even the sun will eventually cease to be. So, maybe you won't live to see it. Or maybe you will.

In Foundation[2], it's also a threat. Empire (both the personification as the genetic dynasty and the reified concept) is terrified of anyone who even dares to suggest it might end, seeing it as a threat. A statement of fact about impermanence can be a threat to an organization whose foundational myth includes its eternal continuation. Part of the myth of empires (and definitely Foundation's Empire) is that they are inevitable, unstoppable, and enduring.

A small watercolor painting of a beach, looking inland with trees and a building in the background. A small figure on the beach stands next to writing on the sand which says "ALL EMPIRES END"

A small, simplified painting based on the photo, a sketch in watercolor.

"All empires end" is also a statement of hope. If all empires end, then this situation, no matter how enduring, unstoppable, or inevitable it seems, will also end. "End" is a more hopefully word than "fall". Maybe we can choose to end it, voluntarily. Maybe we can take it apart. Maybe when the imperial boomerang[3] comes whizzing at our heads we can catch it and break it instead of tossing it out again at the periphery. Maybe we build a better world together. Maybe we just collectively refuse to participate in oppression, just walk into the forest and never come back. Metaphorically or literally, depending on preference.

A watercolor painting of a beach, looking inland with trees and a building in the background. A small figure on the beach stands next to writing on the sand which says “ALL EMPIRES END”

A somewhat larger watercolor painting based on the same photo, with the words all run together, ALLEMPIRESEND.

The slide towards authoritarianism is not inevitable. All empires end. All things made by humans can be changed by humans. It's hard. But, in my experience, everything is hard. Even painting these little watercolors has been hard. All empires end, eventually, but our time as individuals is short, so why wait around?

Want to do something? #

And hey, if you're reading this on October 17 in the USA, consider going to your local No Kings protest march tomorrow, October 18. They're having them all over. The one last time was basically a huge party. It's the most friendly protest march I've ever been to, and I think this one will be similar. You don't need to bring a sign or a fancy costume. Physically showing up sends a message.

  1. You can't see that in the photo because it's from when she started writing. By the time she finished, the angle wasn't as good, and anyway I couldn't get the entire phrase and get the right kind of contrast to have it show up, though I tried as you can see at the end of that other post. ↩︎

  2. Both in Asimov's Foundation stories and in the Apple TV adaptation, though to be honest I am much more familiar with the adaptation. I read the first book of the Foundation stories and didn't like them much. Character development is a waste of page count better taken up by other things seemed to be Asimov's general approach to storytelling. The TV show has its own faults, but it has good character and beautiful world building and that works better for me. ↩︎

  3. "The imperial boomerang is the thesis that governments that develop repressive techniques to control colonial territories will eventually deploy those same techniques domestically against their own citizens." Text from the Wikipedia article "Imperial boomerang." ↩︎

finger on the pulse of today prose san francisco watercolor

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