IS AMERICA IN DECLINE?
15 February 2012 by Cullen Roche
13 Comments
Here’s an excellent interview with Robert Kagan who recently wrote the book “The World America Made” (thanks to reader JKH). It goes well with the recent discussion on the Roman Empire and this paralyzing belief that we’re somehow in this great decline. I highly recommend the interview as it provides an excellent perspective of the reality of our “decline”.
See the full interview here.
Sure, everything looks just great! What a crock!
The “Great” America as we know it, was built upon the Freedom created by the Constitution of the United States of America. That Constitution is all but dead and America is and will continue to die with it, period! I know what tyranny looks like and I have personally lived it, right here! It’s not likely that you have ANY idea how much trouble we are truly in and since oBama and his appointed Czars have taken control, it’s getting worse by the day!
Check out Gibson Guitar…. just for starters.
You’re funny.
You’re living under tyranny? You mean like having your government shelling your neighborhood? Or taking away your neighbors in the middle of the night, with no explanation, them dumping their mutilated bodies on the street? That kind of tyranny?
BTW, the Constitution only provided “freedom” for a small fraction of the population at that time. Excluded were enslaved Africans, women, and the native American population.
Thankfully, it was written to be modified, and the definition of freedom was expanded to include women, and non-white/Europeans.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t real problems, and surrendering some freedoms formerly enjoyed can be nettlesome. I’m constantly annoyed that people think my dog should be on a leash, when he is very well behaved and under control at all times. I’d kinda like to pee in the park, too, but refrain from it mostly, out of respect to others.
And realistically, what significant restriction of freedoms has the Obama administration imposed upon the average American? Yes, they are edging us closer to the “nanny state”, and the freedom to fail, or die without adequate health care, but that is quite different from tyranny.
Check out Gibson Guitar…. just for starters.
I see we’ve got a Fender man here. Or someone who literally thinks the government is going to take away his guitar under the Lacey Act.
I see we’ve got a Fender man here. Or someone who literally thinks the government is going to take away his guitar under the Lacey Act.
It sounds like the plot of a Jack Black movie.
)
I like your answer better! I think it would be an excellent movie, in the right hands. Do you write screenplays too?
Obama carries on with most of the Bush-era policies and he’s a socialist? Keep the tax cuts, and continue to fight endless wars in the Middle East. Granted, he did push through so-called health care reform. But we got the junk plan pushed by the Heritage Foundation close to 20 years ago, and it was the same plan that Bob Dole supported in 1996. And that Mittens gave us here in Massachusetts.
George Orwell would not be surprised.
It is obvious that the USA is in relative decline compared to other rising powers. However, there is nothing that says we can’t have a dramatic turnaround in the future. Nothing ever goes in a straight line projection, until a trend becomes terminal. Our decline still seems to be reversible.
So goes the poor and middle classes, so goes the country. If we choose policies that neglect and further impoverish them, then we are failing. We are declining. And we will be replaced by another country/nation that seeks prosperity for it’s masses.
I think he’s more sad than funny. To say he lives under tyranny in the U.S…..sad indeed
America in the early twenty-first century is still a powerful and prosperous country but, as the author observes, it is rapidly losing the special qualities which made it a distinctive nation. He compares the process to the transition from republic to empire in ancient Rome:
In terms of wealth, military might, and territorial reach, Rome was at its peak under the emperors. But Rome’s initial downward step, five centuries before the eventual fall of the Western Roman Empire, was the loss of the republic. Was that loss important? Not in material terms, but for Romans who treasured the republic, it was a tragedy that no amount of imperial splendor could redeem.
Charles Murray, Coming Apart
This is typical of the way a lot of folks/imperialists think in Washington DC. This is what I would call Imperial Hubris. But one has to be an outsider to see this for what it is.
Another Republican nitwit going on about how we need to get our economic house in order but can’t afford to cut our military spending. These guys are hopeless.