We celebrate Independence Day. Independence from what? Through our successful revolution, we achieved independence from the British Empire. But more fundamentally we achieved independence from the Empire System of a hopelessly corrupt Europe going back to the days of Rome. Our revolution dealt a blow to the Anglo-Dutch Empire that was intent not only on enslaving us but on colonizing and enslaving the whole planet. Our nation was founded with the intention of freeing all the nations of the world from the Empire System, not through military intervention, but by serving as a model, as John Winthrop proclaimed in 1630: “We shall be as a city upon a hill.”