This Paper is Causing me to Lose Sleep

            Is it possible that I still don’t have a topic for my paper?  At least I know that I want to write about China and the Mongolian occupation (can I call it an “occupation”?).  I’ve read a lot about Chinggis Khan (I even watched the movie “Mongol” although that gave me NO factual information, but perhaps a sense of time and place (which was my plan all along)) and what an extraordinary feat it was to unify the Mongols.  I have also read a lot about his grandson, Khubilai Khan who, among other things, built a summer capital known as “Xanadu” where “Kubla Khan a stately pleasure-dome decree[d]”, which keeps coming to mind, even though I know Coleridge was not thinking of Mongolia or China much while in his opium trance...  However, I digress.

            I think I want to write about how the Mongols got a bum rap in history because of all of the marauding and pillaging they did, and conquering so much of Asia.  I would like to point out some of the causes of their initiating this destruction, and that China was politically vulnerable because they lacked unification at the time.  And, uh, what did the baby Americans do to the native people, and we don’t exactly have the evil reputation that the Mongols do.

            Speaking of America, what also keeps coming up for me (and perhaps why I can’t sleep) is how the U.S. is very vulnerable because if one looks at us with a long lens, the political divide in this country continues to horrify me (if we look for example at China).  Yes, we have always been divided between the north and south, but this nationwide religious fervor that simply won’t die is terrifying.  (Are we becoming a theocracy?)  Between the economic disaster and the political split that has been so nasty over the past 20 years, I think we’re ripe for an economic “Chinggis Kahning,” if you know what I mean.  And then, it’s just a matter of time before the whole thing falls apart.  People may have been predicting the demise of America since its inception, but the deterioration I’ve seen in my own lifetime gives me a real sense of foreboding.  I’m relieved I have no children, and will therefore have no grandchildren to fear for.

            I suppose that’s a good reason to become a religious fanatic—you can ruin a whole country and then just sit tight until you die and go to heaven, or until you are raptured up and get to ruin paradise.  Which leads us back to Xanadu, doesn’t it?  All roads lead to China.  Hmmmmm….. Maybe I should just write about the Silk Roads.