I am usually not overtly political in my images - yet this one seems to me a metaphor for the direction our current administration's foreign policy is taking us and the globe.
In this image, the earth is deeply scarred; the lessons of history are covered with dust; the American flag is down, but the light on the flag holds out some hope that with enlightened leadership, perhaps we can reignite the respect that flag once commanded in the world. Perhaps this image is a metaphor for hope. I certainly hope so.
I love your interpretation of this image. Yours, shot with a softer light really emphasizes the deterioration of the globe's surface...as if it might fall apart any second. Mine http://www.pbase.com/sveetzel/image/69400016) seems to emphasize the globe more as a teaching device, perhaps, and I saw a sharp
"eclipse" of light. The flag in mine barely shows up but is there. Your interpretation has a much clearer and distinct message...the falling of our world's environment, so timely a subject too. Congratulations of such a fine image full of meaning, Tim!
Everything in this image supports your concept, Tim. A scorched earth; books representing history that are covered with dust (unread by those who might learned from them); and most tellingly, a flag once revered around the world now lies inert on the ground. This picture might also have carried a caption with the famous quote "those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them."