america stands before the world as an impetuous void, 
a fatality without substance.  
nothing prepared her for hegemony; yet she tends toward it, 
not without a certain hesitation. 
unlike the other nations which have had to pass through a series of humiliations 
and defeats, she has known till now only the sterility of an uninterrupted good fortune. 
if, in the future, everything should continue to go as well, her appearance on the scene 
will have been an accident without influence. those who preside over her destiny, 
those who take her interests to heart, should prepare for bad times; 
in order to cease being a superficial monster, 
she requires an ordeal of major scope.  
having lived, hitherto, outside hell, 
she is preparing to descend into it.
if she seeks a destiny for herself, 
she will find it only on the ruins 
of all that was her raison d’etre.

emil cioran,
the temptation to exist