Just a few months ago, we were celebrating the 250th birthday of the good ol’ US of A — and not long before that, Jacobin’s own anniversary. But now things are a bit grimmer. Our stars-and-stripes democratic socialism stands in horror before the second Trump administration’s imperial and unjust war in Iran. It seems undeniable now that the American empire is in its death throes. 

It’s a dangerous moment, for sure, but it’s also a chance for us to imagine a better world — and what could replace the American empire. Obviously, we want a democratic socialist state. But there’s strength in numbers — and in international allies. Like Karl Marx said, the new world’s gotta be built in the shell of the old one. And right now, we need the violence of American empire to come to a stop, immediately. That’s why Jacobin is reaching into the past for ideas. With this disgraceful war in Iran, we’re thinking it’s the perfect time for America to join and help rebuild that greatest of all empires: the Achaemenid Empire of the sixth century BCE. 

Think about it: We want peace in the Middle East and to shore up our alliances in the West. And despite many of us being atheists, we respect the kind of universal morals that undergird Zoroastrianism (they have a flower ceremony!) and the romantic glory that could only be brought about by a man like Cyrus the Great (may his enemies wither and tremble). Rebuilding the Achaemenid (but socialist!), America would join the cream of Europe (Greece, Bulgaria, Albania) with the ancient heritage of North Africa and West Asia, and even the “next Wyoming” for our cowboy internationalist transplants: Kazakhstan!