How does the institution of "Empire" gain and maintain support/success?
In the eyes of the general public, the word “empire,” doesn’t strike as a concept that affects their everyday life in today’s modern world. Little does one know how much they actually are involved with empire and its dealings everyday. You see, aside from the name of a TV show and in reference to the most dominant regimes in known history, the word doesn’t have much other public exposure. The term “empire”, on a more liberal scale, is a sense/ state of an entity’s stability in terms of growth, and it’s goals of influence, production, or expansion (or a combination all of the above). The United States country is an empire, Disney and Apple are examples of modern empires, even religious faiths could be considered empires if viewed from a certain frame of mind. And while you would be reaching to connect these entities on a face level, each one of these entities share vast similarities in their workings that begin to show their imperial nature. Perhaps the most overlooked and important of which is their tendency to create or find opposition and utilize the opposition to push their ideals.
Rome had many enemies- made many enemies. in a way, it shows how successful they were. Similarly, the biggest industries today have competition: Apple vs. Samsung, Apple vs. Microsoft, Xbox vs. PS4 Marvel vs. DC, Disney vs… well, everyone. But why? Why is competition so relevant in the life of empire? Because life thrives in competition. It inspires support, competition, continuation, and bleeding-edge innovation from all the involved strata as they support/strive to achieve their ideals and reject the outside in a type of hive mentality. The proof is every day life. Of course some forms of imperial competition (i.e. product advertisement) aren’t as blatant “Russians are bad, enlist today!” which coated American walls in the 1910’s or the oh so effective twitter rhetoric of today. But both share the same rival-izing core and encourage the public to support an definitive side.
Scott Mendelson (Forbes) in his article “Why Marvel Should Want Justice League to Succeed,” wrote that if we were looking at the superhero industry as a “marvel versus dc” conflict that “While Marvel would prefer to remain on top… it is in Marvel’s best interest that Justice League kicks ass,” because it elevates the medium and raises the ceiling for more growth of their respective empires. It seems violent and dangerous, but the united states history is riddled with leaders pushing for conflict and competition in order to raise nationalist support. From Teddy Roosevelt saying he would “welcome any war” in the early 1900’s to Trump openly welcoming and threatening nuclear war with highly volatile countries today. They all aim to create a banner that the country could unite under in order to elevate their support and respective position in the world as a superpower.
One of the greatest Franklin Delano Roosevelt quotes comes from his First inaugural address where he said the “only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” He was right. The competitive, nationalistic challenge that comes with fear of succumbing to creates an unparalleled motivation for action and growth within an empire. Sometimes we see positive results (competition technology and innovation), other times it could lead to more heinous and destructive paths (arms races and military power displays). One thing is certain- once lured into it’s grasp, there’s no telling how far that imperial competition will go.
Citations
Mendelson, Scott. “Why Marvel Should Want ‘Justice League’ To Succeed.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 25 Apr. 2017, https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2017/04/25/why-marvel-should-want-justice-league-to-succeed/#179b70726302
Andrew's Blog 
I love how you define Empire in our modern society. It is true that while a lot of people think empire is a distant concept, the business empires are everywhere in society these days. I agree with your focus on the empire raising competition and conflicts. Those competition has definitely provided motivation for company to develop and improve. In the meanwhile, I start to wonder how does one win the business competition? Is it the same as Dr. Zissos said that the larger it is, the better chances of survival?
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