America is plagued with a lot of problems these days.  Why is that?  We have followed the typical path of many empires before us.  What is different is we have the data now to prove the point.  This is why my most popular presentation is called "Empire Economics."   

The Founding Fathers knew how corrupting wars can be and avoided excessive military entanglements.  Keeping a minimal military between wars maximized the growth potential of the young nation.  The people were left to decide what was best for them, and they were industrious and successful.  Success is the best cure for crime and violence.  Excessive militarism promotes all the conditions for higher crime and violence. Many on the political left focus on guns to explain our condition in America, but looking internationally, empire and high military spending do a much better job of explaining international differences.  Many European countries have very few gun murders, yet have overall murder rates proportional to their military spending just like in the United States of America.  One presidential candidate claims to be the law and order candidate, yet both crime and illegal immigration are the lowest in about forty years under the Obama administration.  Still we are very high in crime compared to other industrialized nations.

The following earlier postings are brought together in "Violent Society America" with a link to the full text of all seven.  Here are brief summaries:

Cycles of War and Violence

Why are we making so many parallels to the sixties with today's times and events?  Well because the 54 year cycle is a very real land ocean cycle on this planet that effects natural events, economics and wars among other things.  So it is useful to subtract 54 years from 2016 and get 1962, roughly the middle of the civil rights struggle of that time.  We are in the early stages of another civil rights era struggle.  The secondary war peaks in 2006 (Iraq War was 3 years early) and the major war peaks around 2024 average or 2025 most frequent.  The Vietnam War, due about 1970, came five years early in 1965.  Korea came two years early in 1950 instead of the average historical date of 1952.

Baltimore Riot the New Watts 

The Los Angeles Watts riot of 1965 came after a summer heat wave suddenly cooled a bit and the riots started then, the day of the cooling.  The Baltimore riots of 2015 were bigger than the Ferguson riots, hence they seemed a closer comparison to Watts fifty years before. 

Why Were Murder and Crime Cut in Half in the Nineties?

Whenever there is a military buildup, manufacturing suffers, thanks to the diversion of research and capital into the military instead.  Likewise, whenever the military is reduced, manufacturing grows, thanks to those same research, engineering, and capital resources being productively employed again.

Thus the near perfect crime and murder rate correlations with a nation's military spending over a two decade period.  There is a delay period in transition, but the end of the Cold War military spending levels in the nineties lead to high economic growth and low murder and crime rates.  Since social decay accompanies the economic decay of empire, this crime rate international comparison is an excellent indicator of the many social changes in the process.  After about five years the murder rate follows the military spending lower and continues for another decade or so.  This delayed reaction is due to the time of raising a child to adulthood.  This formative experience translates into the crime rate as the economic conditions get better and better.  As the society relies less on mass violence or the threat of mass violence in terms of war, the children become more peaceful and society has less criminals.

Militarized Terror Policing

In the wake of the Ferguson murder by cop, the militarization of the modern police force became evident, showing the changes in our society over time as empire becomes a way of life.  Many policemen served in the Afghanistan or Iraq Wars as National Guard or reserve.  Many police forces took training from the Israelis and were told to shoot first and ask questions later by trainers.  The social worker policepersons of the seventies gradually were replaced with the warrior cops of today.

10 Ferguson Jury Mistakes 

The district attorney needs cops on his side to prosecute people.  This conflict lead to a grand jury situation where the presentation of evidence was all in the cops favor, including a white woman who backed up the policeman's false narrative to the point that jurors ignored the several black witnesses who saw Michael Brown surrendering with his hands up in the air when he was shot dead with six bullets hitting, including a final head shot as the body fell forward facing the cop.  Multiple shots protect the police officer from facing adverse testimony by the victim.  One month after the verdict not to prosecute the officer, the district attorney revealed in a radio interview that it had been determined that the white woman supporting the police testimony was never present at the scene.  Still today on the far right, from Sean Hannity to Morning Joe, they insist that Michael Brown never had his hands up in surrender.

Control Freak Societies

Top down is the way to go in the military, the way we fought World War II.  Control is the way of empire and perpetual militarism in a society.  It is the opposite of the collegial process of new ideas and innovations needed for healthy economic growth.  Some control is important, but excessive control leads to rigidity and conformity.  A heavy dose of militarism stagnates the economy; it leads to higher unemployment rates and more top down control of the workplace results as employers have the upper hand over employees.  Then control freaks become a way of life in society in general.

Modern Feudalism, Two Cases

Power and control become dominant over equality freedom innovation and achievement in the high military spending society.  This comes to resemble the feudalism that swept Europe in the wake of the Roman Empire's decline.  The same excessive militarism that leads to the self destruction of empires can carry over in the every fiefdom for itself mentality of castles, drawbridges, lords and serfs in the Middle Ages.  Large scale authority breaks up into micro scale authority.  Armed travel becomes necessary to protect the travelers from many diverse threats.  As militarism and control become ascendant, science and innovation go to sleep.  Churches and castles become the new authorities, and ways of life are perpetuated by heredity and class.  Social mobility ceases to be possible in such a restrictive environment.  Today social mobility in the USA has become much lower than it is in many European countries.

Detailed texts of the collection of seven papers:

https://www.academia.edu/27198787/Violent_Society_in_the_United_States_seven_papers_