That’s the hope. But what if there is an event horizon beyond which that hope is lost forever. Are we even in control of ourselves?

I think you’re right - to an extent. You may not deserve this. Americans might not deserve this. Any other arbitrarily defined group of people may not deserve it.

But humanity as a whole? We are a disgusting scourge on this earth, and we probably deserve everything that’s coming to us. The current situation is just a reflection of overaching dynamics of greed, lies and self-righteousness that have always been with us.

I realize this is basically an absurd notion of collective reaponsibility. At the same time, we have no one to blame for our species’ toxic psychopathic behavior but the species as a whole. If we had any decency left we would just delete ourselves as quietly and staightforwardly as possible.

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External self-determination cares little about national laws. That’s kinda the whole point. The real question is what type of conditions need to be met before a right to external self-determination arises and is recognized by other countries. In general, most countries don’t recognize a right to unilateral seccession under any condition. At the same time, it is also agreed that if a state were to make the practice of internal self-determination virtually impossible or meaningless, then a right to external self-determination should arise. In which case any “no backsies” rule under US national law (even the constitution) may be seen as a breach of fundamental rights.

With independence, it usually comes down to who has the bigger stick (in both material and ideational terms). The are definitely scenarios in which US states can make a valid legal case for independence but the conditions for that still haven’t been met as most international lawyers will agree that Americans in all states are afforded the right to internally self-determine. For now. Things are changing quickly.