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There's a portion of Americans that are always negative about America, the outlook for America, and are almost never optimistic. I still think the US is one of the leading innovators in the world. The US economy is also starting to fire on all cylinders. The US is like every other country on Earth, we have problems, but there are still many things to be proud of and I'm quite optimistic for the next ten years.
There's a portion of Americans that are always negative about America, the outlook for America, and are almost never optimistic. I still think the US is one of the leading innovators in the world. The US economy is also starting to fire on all cylinders. The US is like every other country on Earth, we have problems, but there are still many things to be proud of and I'm quite optimistic for the next ten years.
Agreed. We aren't an imperial nation anyway, so the comparisons to empires of the past is false. I think we'll do just fine. I'm not a quitter, and I suspect most of us aren't.
I believe its unchecked liberalism and hedonism and deviancy.
Man, you people don't read history.
"Unchecked liberalism" made Rome fell?
Really?
Rome was at its height of power and influence when it was PAGAN and decadent.
It's fall came after its conversion to Christianity.
Now, that doesn't mean chastity and puritanism will cause a nation to fall (though it certainly stifles art and creativity, as well as scientific advancement: See for example, fall of Islamic empire, which was most prosperous when it was liberal, open and tolerant and then turned to the hell hole societies we see today in the Middle East), but other factors were/are obviously at play.
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.â€
― Marcus Tullius Cicero
After WW2, we were the most powerful nation on the planet. We had the resources - raw materials - and huge manufacturing plants & steel industry, the infrastructure - to do anything we desired. We were not a hated nation. We had no 'drive by' killings and hordes of illegal aliens to overtax our schools and medical facilities. Eisenhower and Kennedy had programs that built our freeway systems and our educational systems into the best anywhere. You could see a doctor and be treated for a few dollars. One person could - after graduating from HS - get a job, buy a car and afford to buy a house, get married & support a wife & family, ALL on one income. Hey! We were going to the Moon!
However - after President Kennedy was murdered - things quickly changed. Anyone old enough to remember back to the end of Truman's term, and Ike's first term as President - will know and understand. There's no way to explain the enormous changes that have been wrought on what America once was - compared to today. You'd have to live it all to grasp this. To fully understand and know these things.
As for the cause - well, as Cicero knew - this is as old as the 'civilized' world. As he orated, 'A nation cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.' Yes, we have them in OUR government. They are loyal only to their nation. You can look them up. They are the so-called 'dual-citizens'.
It's somewhat unhealthy when the nation is so obsessed with sports and entertainment. What nation is as obsessed as USA?
I doubt we are uniquely obsessed. Around the world, soccer wins are routinely the cause of riots and the occasional fatality. Entertainment is huge business worldwide, even muslim peasants living in villages under attack are watching movies when they can get them.
True, but I think it would help if more people had the mindset to do something themselves. Not everyone, but some. Invent something we can export...make something valuable instead of only consuming what other people are making.
???Americans still account for for more than our share of nobel science prizes and still start new companies in staggering numbers. I do think that there is a growing gap between most americans and the americans who are seriously involved in science, including medicine and technology. I find that worrisome.
To the original question - I think nations fail when their established institutions become too cumbersome and entrenched to react appropriately when world conditions change. More energy is put into protecting existing institutions than in encouraging new ones. I think we are seeing this here with the end of cheap oil.
The US will endure, but will lose its place at the head of the pack to nations with more nimble institutions.
("Institutions" may include government, but also includes heavy hitters in the private sector that have sufficient power to use government to protect them.)
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