I am happy that I am a Canadian. Empires rise and fall. American Empire is ending like all other empires. Rarely are they loved by the people who lived outside of them. Their end is always ugly. British, Mongolian, Roman Empires lasted much longer than the U.S. Many small countries live on and thrive: Andorra existed since 1278, Liechtenstein 1868, San Marino since 4th Century, etc. And Monaco is the tiniest country in the world where the largest number of the richest people in the world live. The small countries are lasting longer than all empires though they are so small and so insignificant that few of us know where they are.

Little cockroaches have existed millions of years before dinosaurs had appeared. Cockroaches are still living with us and will probably outlive us. For a long time, we have used to the idea that “the bigger the better.” I believe the time has come to examine that mantra. In the 1970’s, I read a book titled “Small is Beautiful” by E.F. Schumacher, and liked the notion. I believe that the trouble with us for not being able to change our life-style is caused by the fact that we do not want to give up our “big” mantra. We have to convince ourselves that “Small is Beautiful” and start behaving accordingly. Ancient Chinese wisdom has been warning us that “It’s better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of a cow.” We know the tail gets a lot of sh*t, though it is a part of a big and beautiful impressive animal. I pity those people whose only goal in life is to become big and famous. I rather want to stay small and happy.

I drive a Smart Car and I pay somewhere around $40 to fill the empty tank. I drive in a city alone most of the time. I can drive to Calgary 250 km away and come back without refill. The bigger the better? We have to be woken up to realize the fact that BIG doesn’t pay. Many big and majestic animals are now extinct. Where are dinosaurs and mammoth? Bisons were almost wiped out. Other huge creatures are disappearing fast too, e.g. elephants, hippopotamus, whales. They are big and impressive. Were there ever conditions where the big size was a better option to adopt in the survival of the fittest battle ground? The same question has to be asked about humans. Empires were huge and powerful. Some of them lasted a few centuries. But all of them were destroyed from within by the weight of their success. The end of empires has never been pretty. We are watching the decline of the American Empire. And it’s not pretty. We and the Europe are the collateral damage. Decline and fall of any empire has never been pretty. When a big rock cracks and pieces fall, they always take their innocent vassals down with them. What about the big guys who were the heads of those big empires? When you go through the list of recent dictators and tyrants, you see many of their ends are sad and ugly: Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Muamar Gaddafi, etc. Were they loved? No. Feared, maybe. Why then we never learn that big is not so good as advertised.